Forrests Music is a wind instrument sales and repair shop situated in Berkeley, California, within walking distance of the University of California. The store has been a Berkeley institution since the late 1940's. In its current configuration, a total of six people make up the staff: co-owners Cynthia Behnke Hanson and Audrey Jackson; store manager Celia Bryan; consultant, double reed technician, product development and IT associate John Goebel; woodwind and brass technician and product supplier Marilyn Day; part time sales and order fulfillment associate Phil Freihofner.

Cynthia is a bassoonist with a BM in Bassoon Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder and one year of graduate study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is an active bassoonist/contra-bassoonist in the SF Bay Area, performing frequently with local symphonies, opera and ballet companies, pit orchestras, municipal bands and chamber ensembles.

Audrey has an MM in Clarinet Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a BS from Brooklyn College. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist playing flute, clarinet and saxophone, Audrey developed a passion for double reeds over her tenure at Forrests, starting to learn bassoon in 1993 and recently starting to learn oboe. When not at the store, she can be found in orchestra pits throughout the Bay Area, and occasionally beyond.

Our long-time manager Celia (since 1980) has a BM in Oboe Performance from Stanford and an MM from San Francisco State University.

John, from Madison Wisconsin, was already a highly regarded woodwind technician when he was lured to northern California by Peter Klatt, a past owner of Forrests.

Marilyn has been the woodwind and brass technician for Forrests since 1981. She studied with Bill Sheik and John Goebel.
John and Marilyn were the owners of Forrests for almost twenty years.

Phil has a BA in Music from UC Berkeley. A valued member of the Forrests team, he is an oboist, composer, software developer, and has a keen interest in the physics of music. You can find some of his compositions, double reed arrangements, and his co-invention with John, the Blend Guide Mandrel, at Forrests!