Horn-u-Copia's Display of Makers

Renold Otto Schilke, born in Green Bay June 30, 1910. In 1921, he was the only child soloist with the Holton factory band

In 1927, Schilke studied at the Brussels Conservatory in Brussels. He also studied the work of Victor Mahillon, who Schilke attributed as the greatest influence on his own design work. Mahillon believed that intonation could be influenced by the rate of taper in the tubing.

In 1928, he began to study trumpet with Edward Llewellyn, the principal trumpet player in the Chicago Symphony, and took a part time job working for a small mouthpiece maker in Chicago who made the mouthpiece that Llewellyn played. At Llewellyns death in 1936, Schilke became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where he became involved in trumpet design with Elden Benge who had been with the Symphony since 1932. The two were neighbors and worked in Schilke's home workshop. When Benge started manufacturing trumpets in 1938, Schilke did most of the tooling for the production

During this same time period, the late 1930s, Schilke was part of the Committee that designed the Martin Committee trumpet, his contributions included the reverse leadpipe, minimal bracing and lightweight materials.

In the early 1950's, Philip Farkas and Schilke, formed Music Products, Inc. Their goal was to make one mouthpiece for each instrument. Around 1956, Schilke bought out Farkas and took the name, The Schilke Company and later Schilke Music Products, Inc. The company initially retailed Holton products.

He was able to buy the William Frank Company,when the company suddenly dissolved.

In 1959, Schilke moved to 183 West Washington, Chicago, in 1963, moved to 223 West Lake Street, on the fourth floor of the Lyons Band Instrument Company. In 1967, he moved to 529 South Wabash Avenue. The move to the present location in Melrose Park was in August 1989.

In 1966, Yamaha hired Schilke as a consultant.

In 2002, the company was sold to Andrew Naumann, a baroque trumpet maker and a member of the design team of the Edwards Division of the Getzen company.

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