Rovner Products

Francesco Passera's journey in music began with a lifelong passion. While his sister pursued guitar and piano performance, Francesco's path led him to business school and a career outside of music for 20 years. However, his love of music never waned, leading him back to the industry. In 2021, Francesco met Mr.

Lynn Reeder did not become actively involved in music until her mid-40’s after receiving a gift certificate for voice lessons from her husband George and son Alex, although an avid listener throughout her life! Those lessons resulted in 13 years of musical performance, singing in a women’s choral group and in the Reeders’ 10-piece band. A self-professed “creative type” Lynn worked as a designer and manufacturer in the hobby and needlecraft industry and published multiple instruction books.

George Reeder and his wife, Lynn, are the owners of Rovner Products, which produces ligatures, mouthpieces and other accessories for musical instruments. The company was established in the 1970s when Phil Rovner, a mechanical engineer and musician, set out to redesign the ligature for his saxophone. The ligature is the device that attaches the reed to the mouthpiece in a way that allows the reed to vibrate. Phil’s idea was to use a textile strap for his ligature, which has since been used by students and professional musicians alike. George worked briefly with Phil in the early 19

Phil Rovner was having some trouble with his intonation as a saxophone player, and decided to design a new approach to attaching the reed to his mouthpiece. As an engineer, he had the knowledge to create this new ligature, which has since been utilized by musicians around the world. Phil grew up in Baltimore and played in local clubs, which were plentiful in the early 1950s. He took lessons from Joe Allard, the noted professor at Juilliard. In fact, Phil tells an interesting story about taking the milk train home from his lessons, which would take up to six hours because the train

Carle Vickers’ grandmother was a noted soprano and pianist who gave him a great appreciation for classical music as well as piano lessons. He began playing trumpet and saxophone in grade school and continued throughout high school. While studying pre-med, Carle was