Meet Jeff !

Hello!

My name is Jeff Krueger, and I am the owner/repair technician of Forest City Instrument Repair.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago as a life-long lover of music and all things mechanical. I often remember times listening to and discussing music with my father as we did repairs/maintenance around our home. Little did I know then, this was the seed that blossomed into the business I run today. However, my path to getting here was not the most conventional.

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2018 with a degree in Music Education. Throughout my schooling, I excelled as a performer and student due to a meticulous attention to detail and attempts to always work to the best of my ability. From there, I taught music in several small schools until my wife, Lizzy, and I relocated back to Northern Illinois to be near family. In the fall of 2019, I became the Band Director at Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, IL.

During my time at Boylan, my love for doing repairs and maintenance began to emerge. My band program had a robust inventory of “loaner” instruments that had been neglected over the years, so I got to work completing simple repairs: replacing a water key spring here, pulling a stuck tuning slide there, adjusting the mechanisms on woodwinds, refitting a neck cork, replacing a broken drum head. In doing so, I learned the basic repairs and maintenance of all the band instruments. Looking back on this time, I found great joy in making instruments play again for my students and resolving roadblocks to making music.

In April of 2023, my daughter Juliana was born. After many long discussions and discernment with my wife, we decided it was the best decision for me to leave teaching and raise our family. After several months at home, I felt a longing to again connect and contribute to the music community. It wasn’t until I was cleaning my own trumpets one night in preparation for a gig that I had the realization that instrument repair was a way that I could do that. I thought back on all the experiences and joy I felt making instruments play again as a band director and decided this was the path for me. Soon after, with the help of my family, I began apprenticing at a local repair shop and began to hone the skills I learned from maintaining school instruments and learning more complex repairs. After gaining the necessary skills, I now run Forest City Instrument Repair out of my home workshop with the ability to raise my kids at home as well. A dream come true!

Best,

Jeff Krueger

A man with glasses and a beard holding a trumpet, dressed in a black blazer and red shirt, standing in front of a decorated Christmas tree and poinsettias, with a nativity statue in the background.