From our Family to Yours: A Post of Reflection and Thanksgiving from Clarinets by Copeland
It’s hard to believe that we’re in Thanksgiving week! It seems like just last month we were planning out our yearly business calendar, yet now we’re looking at 2026 – time truly does fly! As we begin to reflect on 2025 and the blessings we’ve seen throughout the year, I wanted to personally pen a ‘thank you’ from the family behind our business.
Thankful for Beginnings
As many of you know, Clarinets by Copeland comes from humble beginnings. Jonathan and I first met playing clarinet in high school band in our small hometown of Kingston, Tennessee, where we were under the band direction of Mr. Zack Williamson, then both became private clarinet students of Mrs. RoAnn Romines. As first-generation college students, we attended Middle Tennessee State University on a combination of scholarships and student loans and became members of the clarinet studio under the tutelage of the incomparable Dr. Todd Waldecker. Jonathan earned both his bachelor and masters degrees in Clarinet Performance, while I degreed in Instrumental and Vocal/General Music Education. In 2010, while finishing grad school, Jonathan began working for another highly-respected woodwind repair technician in the Nashville, Tennessee area (shoutout to Jason Onks at Onks Woodwind Specialist!). Coming in as an apprentice, Jonathan learned the ins and outs of woodwind repair at a professional level, spending nearly a decade refining his craft and serving clarinetists throughout the Nashville area and around the country. To this day, we are forever grateful to Zack Williamson, RoAnn Romines, Todd Waldecker, and Jason Onks for pouring into us in those early years, and for their continued support today.
Thankful for Providence
In 2019, the Copeland family left Nashville to come to Louisville, Kentucky to pursue ministry and simultaneously make Clarinets by Copeland its own stand-alone business (it had previously been a side gig to Jonathan’s full-time work at Onks). Moving forward with nothing more than experience and a dream, Jonathan took a leap of faith that the Lord would provide to prayerfully grow the business and support our family. At the time, I had just finished ten years of service as a public school music educator and was teaching in the Louisville area, while Jonathan attended seminary full-time and was also running Clarinets by Copeland on his own. We were unsure of what our future would hold, but our whole world was shaken just a month after we moved when I was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Our daughter, Shelby Grace, was just four years old and starting preschool at the time, and we had no family or friends around after just leaving them behind in Tennessee. It was a dark and scary time (which of course was immediately followed by the Covid-19 pandemic), but I am so grateful to say that I am now cancer-free and have been in remission for six years – praise the Lord! Because of God’s merciful provision and the support and growth of our Clarinets by Copeland business, we were able to overcome not only the medical side of cancer, but the financial side as well. Through it all, we have so much to be thankful for!
Thankful for Growth
By 2023, Clarinets by Copeland had grown to the point of Jonathan needing help with the business. He was swamped in repair and maintenance appointments, had become an authorized dealer for two major clarinet brands (Backun and Royal Global), and had just debuted our first ever Copeland-brand clarinet, the Karis (“kah-rees”, Greek for ‘grace’). I made plans to walk away from the public school classroom at the end of the school year, and we began working alongside each other in August. After spending twenty years in a relationship but none as work partners, this time of transition was both encouraging and refining for us both! Jonathan continued to focus on the technical aspects of the business in the repair shop, which was still in our home’s basement at the time, and I took on the role of administrative assistant and salesperson. As we adjusted to this new dynamic, we began seeing opportunities for even more business growth.
By February 2024 we opened our first brick-and-mortar Clarinets by Copeland sales room in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Jonathan continued working from home with repairs and maintenance, while I met with clients in our shop for sales appointments. Although we absolutely loved being part of our thriving Shelbyville Main Street community, we quickly realized that we were yet again outgrowing our space! At the beginning of this year we moved into our current 2000-sq. ft. warehouse space, still in Shelbyville, but now only a couple minutes from our home. Not only is the location more convenient for us and our visiting clients, but it also gives us space for both our repair workshop and sales room – as well as a dedicated office space, inventory room, kitchen, and lounge! Additionally, this year we’ve hired not one but TWO employees to join our team: Alexander Malone, repair apprentice and sales associate, and Jillissa Anderson, clarinet education and sales development specialist. Together, our Clarinets by Copeland team is servicing clarinetists of all ages and abilities, not only here in Kentucky, but across the country, and offering our Copeland line of clarinets, which now has 17 different instruments available (not including the many accessories we have). Never wanting to forget the humble roots from which we came, the Copeland line of clarinets offers high-quality instruments at affordable prices and helps bridge the gap of quality instrument accessibility to clarinetists of all ages, stages, and financial backgrounds. We’ve continued to visit colleges and universities here locally and out of state to promote our brand, speak about repair topics, and support studio programs. We have Copeland Artists, Educators, & Dealers located in multiple states, and we’re working to get our brand even more exposure. We’re attending our first Midwest Clinic in Chicago next month, and our first KMEA Conference in February. We’re hosting our first Clarinet Choir Day in March, inviting any clarinetists from high school and beyond to come hang out with us for a day to prepare a concert for our families, friends, and community members. We’ve got even more plans in the works, but those remain under wraps for now!
From Our Family to Yours
All of this to say, through it all – from our humble beginnings to our current growth – we are very blessed, and so, so thankful for the continued support of Clarinets by Copeland. We know that there are other amazing clarinet repair people throughout the country, and other places to buy clarinets, yet you trust us. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you. This small family business wouldn’t be possible without your support of our dream, and we are truly grateful that our business is giving our family a brighter future. We hope to not only provide top-notch service and customer care, but also an overall positive experience that you’ll feel long after your appointment has ended. We hope to build a legacy of quality musicianship, of integrity, and of faith that makes an impression on our clarinet community and beyond. THANK YOU for being part of this journey with us. It truly means the world!
From our Copeland family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!
–Ashley Copeland