Season’s Greetings!

A Time to Remember

It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since COVID-19 literally rocked our world, but 2024 turned out to be a year of stability, celebration, and adventure for us.

Our business and lives finally began to stabilize this year, and while things are very different than we’d envisioned in 2017 when we first opened our doors, A Kopp Music is precisely where we want it to be now. We’re very happy with our smaller practice made up of just the two of us. In fact, things feel more like they did when we were first married.

Speaking of which, in April we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and 34 years of friendship. The fact is, we only know a handful of couples that are both life and business partners, so we feel very fortunate to spend so much time together doing the things we love.  

A Year of Adventure

We traveled this year more than we have in the past decade. Our last “big trip” pre-COVID was in 2014, so we were very excited to have some opportunities to plan a few trips around our business this past year.

In June we visited Southern California and built a trip around Andy’s Shakuhachi workshop that took us to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, three baseball stadiums (Angel’s, Padre’s, and Dodger’s), and the experience of being in the live studio audience of CBS’s After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson!

In September, we drove down to Kansas City for the Piano Technician Guild’s Midwest Workshop and a baseball game at the Royal’s stadium. This is a trip we will likely repeat each fall when they hold this conference. I think Kauffman Stadium just might be a favorite! Each stadium has their own personalities from the people and smells from the food. In KC the fans tailgate like rock stars. A tip if you go … till that window down when you enter the lot.  The BBQ aroma is amazing!

Exploring New Opportunities

Andy has been enjoying being a piano technician and taking advantage of continuing education opportunities through the Piano Technicians Guild.  The people we’ve met in the Guild have been wonderful — very supportive and welcoming. 

Andy has discovered that working on pianos is a bit like being a car repair person, except everyone’s vehicle is somewhere between old and a Model T. Having a community with which to commiserate and collaborate definitely helps.  

As for me, I have loved the time dedicated to writing this blog, creating graphics for social media drops, and composing our new weekly #AKoppPlaylists. In fact, while we were in Kansas City, I used the time as a writer’s retreat. 

I’m very excited about next year and exploring more topics we’ve already planned out. I couldn’t do this without my amazing team of The Write Effect and Uncorked Design. Thank you, Kris and Jodi, for everything you do!

Wrapping Up the Year with a Bow

To wrap up, our annual Holiday Music Recital is today, Saturday, December 7th. We have five recitals planned to begin at 8am today. It’s our first live Holiday Recital since 2019! I’m going to try to have the video posted before the weekend is over. Stay tuned!

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and cheers to a prosperous 2025!

And that’s a wrap!

Warm Wishes,
Andy & Alicia Kopp