About us
LAUBIN TIMELINE
1931 – Alfred Laubin made his first Oboe as an experiment – to see if he could. He used a handheld drill with a brace to rough out the bore and melted down his wife’s silverware to make the keys. It was a qualified success, but he scrapped it and began making careful improvements to the design. After a few years of improving his design, he was able to make an oboe which could make the lives of the oboe players of the time better, as his oboes were warm and rich with an even-scale. His goal was to help players to have an easier time with their instruments.
1940s – Alfred was a professional oboist, also worked for WTIC Hartford Radio (when it was live), he had a regular shop. He played music and wrote arrangements for chamber music. He also worked for CONN as a repair technician in the woodwinds department. Additionally, Alfred hand-transcribed music for 10 cents a page for musicians.
1940-1946 – Alfred was Professor of Oboe at The Hartt School, Hartford, CT.
1950- Alfred’s son Paul graduated from Scarsdale High School
1951 – Paul entered Louisianna State University in Baton Rouge, where he spent 2 years studying oboe and auto mechanics.
1953 – Paul takes a job in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a season.
1954 – Paul joined the business and began working alongside Alfred manufacturing instruments, including some English Horns.
1958 – Alfred made a deal to move his shop into the Penzel-Mueller factory in Long Island City, allowing him to make use of their machines and workers. This led to an increase in production, up to about 100 instruments per year by the mid-1960s.
1968 – Alfred moves the Oboe shop to 37 N Central Ave., Elmsford, NY. Working with him at that time were Paul, Virgilio Roman, Robert Chauvet, and Bill Glover.
1973 – David Teitelbaum joined the company. Around this time, with fewer workers (no longer being at Penzel-Mueller), the shop was producing about 40-50 instruments per year.
1976 – Alfred’s health declined, and he passed away in September of that year. Despite this difficult loss, Paul and the company persevered, continuing to make about 35 to 40 instruments per year. Mr. Chauvet and Mr. Glover both left the company in the late 1970s.
1978 – Paul began installing an ebonite liner in the top joint of every oboe, preventing cracks, and making instruments last longer. Laubin was the first Oboe company to put a liner in the top joint of oboes and English horns. Later, this became an industry trend.
1980s – Paul, David, and Virgilio produced about 35 to 40 instruments per year, while Paul’s wife Meredith managed customer service and bookkeeping.
1982 – Paul moved the shop from Elmsford to Peekskill, occupying two different spaces above auto dealerships on Crompond Road (Route 202). David Woolsey joined the company for some of this time.
1988 – The company moved to it’s location at 638 Central Ave in Peekskill, NY, on the second floor of a renovated old grain mill. John Skelton joined the company in 1994, learning key-making from Virgilio.
1999 – Virgilio transitioned into a part time role and retired in 2001.
2002 – Meredith Laubin stepped away from the business to attend to health challenges.
2003 – Alexander Laubin joined the company, filling in Meredith’s former role as office manager while also doing various production tasks.
2004 – John Skelton left the shop to go into teaching music. Paul Laubin took over key making. At this time, a series of part time employees joined the company: Phil Terrano, Seth Gallagher, and current team member Stephen Gara. Production was about 15 oboes per year until about 2015.
2016 – David Teitelbaum left the company to open his own repair shop in Rhode Island
3/1/2021 – Paul Laubin passed away, making oboes.
2022 – Alexander Laubin takes over the manufacturing of oboes with the support of John James Phelan of Burkart-Phelan Flutes.
