Margarita is the owner of Heriz Music and has repaired instruments since 1985.

Margarita is a teacher of music, and plays the flute, both classical and folkloric music. Born in Colombia, she became an apprentice to a retired symphony flute player, Professor Alberto Gaitan, who owned and operated a repair shop in Bogotá. After two years, she became the technician for some of the instruments of the philharmonic orchestra there.

Experience: Margarita has lived and worked in the United States since 1989. She has worked in the S.F. Bay Area repairing instruments for Jon’s Music shop and Starving Musicians music shop. She now owns her own music shop in Burlingame, CA.

Professional Affiliations: Margarita is a certified technician, and an active member of NAPBIRT (National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians) www.napbirt.org. As instruments evolve and change, she continues to update her skills and techniques. She attends NAPBIRT clinics and meetings, and studies the association’s literature to stay current on musical instrument trends.

Philosophy: During my apprenticeship, I learned to make quality repairs. My professor, Alberto Gaitan, taught me that there are different ways to repair a musical instrument. There’s a quick, easy way to avoid the problem for now. But, there is also the kind of repair that requires more time, applying experience and knowledge, in order to fix it permanently. A quick fix can get you through tonight’s gig, which is fine for the moment. But, a lot of people only do the quick fix, every time, but that’s not a quality repair. For schools in particular, those quick repairs can be a disservice, because they wind up having to pay again and again. Unless it’s an emergency, I much prefer to do a thorough appraisal and repair, so that the problem is truly taken care of.

– Margarita