My name is Jennifer Auerbach, and I am the founder and owner of the Bocal Majority Organization. We have been around since 2005, and the story of our journey is a unique one. In 2005 I was teaching and playing bassoon in the Dallas area when I decided to start a summer reed-making camp for local bassoon students. I gathered a few of my friends to teach at the camp and 20 students attended. In 2009 we added oboes to our camps and in 2017 we added clarinets as well. Now we typically have 30 nationwide camps all over the country and online, too.

My goal has always been to help the double reed community by providing high level information in a positive and uplifting environment. Having a store where we sell double-reed related items was the last thing on my mind when we started the camps. But soon I realized my own students were often looking to buy instruments, tools, reeds, and supplies, as were our campers, instructors and their students. And if we could have these double-reed items available to them, we could help them with their love of music in that way as well.

We started our online store in 2010. At that time, I would take a few packages per week to the post office, type in everyone’s full address, pay for the postage and send people their items. When people wanted to try instruments, they would come to my house and sit in our dining room chairs while my cats helped them try their future instrument. In 2017 we opened a brick and mortar store in Richardson, TX (a suburb of Dallas) and we now send out more packages in one day than we did in three months a decade ago.  The cats no longer help with instrument trials (sorry, cat people!). We have in-person customers every day, we offer instrument and bocal trials, high level repair, and lessons, too. One thing hasn’t changed: our commitment to the music community. I am still a teacher, a professional bassoonist, an advocate, and someone who thinks that music enriches our lives beyond measure.

Everything we sell, I personally stand behind, whether that is a reed, an instrument, a tool, or a supply. If I wouldn’t use it or want my own student using it, we don’t sell it. All of our reeds remain hand made, and most of the bassoon reeds we sell go through my hands before being sold. And we understand that musicians and their families are not made of money, so we do our best to keep prices competitive. We try to offer the kind of fair and up front service we would want to receive.

We’re not just a store. We’re not just a camp. We don’t just sell instruments and reeds; we sell a passion for and a lifelong love of music. When you walk into our store (virtual or otherwise), we do our best to treat you as the valued customer we see you as. We truly feel it would be an honor to earn your business. Thank you for visiting Bocal Majority.