OWNERSHIP
Owner – C. Matthew Yates
Matt Yates obtained his degree in Music Education and trombone performance from Randy Kohlenberg at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. During his first year of college, he began an apprenticeship with John Blythe at a repair shop in Burlington, NC. After his two-year apprenticeship, he continued to work as a technician at the shop while finishing his music degree.
Upon graduation in 2001, Matt began a career as a middle school and high school band director while continuing to work as a repair technician at nights and on weekends, eventually leaving the shop to focus on his teaching career. Matt worked as a middle and high school band director for eight years before opening Hill City Music Repair in Lynchburg, Virginia. Hill City Music Repair quickly became a primary provider of instrument repair services in Central Virginia, rebranding in 2014 as just Hill City Music as services other than repair were added to the business.
When not in the store, Matt is often working on a harp as owner of H. Bryan and Company, specializing in repair in restoration of pedal harps. When he isn’t working, Matt loves spending time with his family, serving his church, or getting in a round of golf.
MANAGMENT
Repair Shop Manager – Joshua Arnold
Joshua Arnold has been with Hill City Music for over ten years. He attended Jefferson Forest High School, just up the road from the shop. He later completed a one-year instrument repair apprenticeship under Matt’s instruction. Joshua has a gift for fixing things from cars to just about any musical instrument that crosses our counter. We are very lucky to have him lead our repair shop in Lynchburg as his mechanical aptitude and attention to details helps us continue to provide the high quality repairs Hill City Music has built their reputation upon over the past 15 years.
Outside of work Joshua pursues knowledge in a plethora of activities. Car repair and maintenance, animal fostering, electronics repair and modification, as well as a new challenge of learning computer programming.
Store Manager – Josh Caruthers
Josh grew up and completed his education in Pennsylvania before moving to Virginia for work. He taught in the classroom for 7 years (2010-14, 2019-2022) and has been with Hill City Music for 6 years (2014-2018, 2022-present). His degree is in Mathematics, but he spent most of his time in high school and college making music, performing with several instrumental and vocal ensembles each semester. As a teacher, he spent a lot of time with the band programs to offer his services as a percussionist and educator.
Josh completed a one-year instrument repair apprenticeship under Matt’s instruction in 2015 and worked full time in the repair shop before assuming the role of Educational Representative in 2016; combining his experience in education with his new career. He assumed the role of store manager in 2018 before returning to the classroom for 3 years. He stayed connected with Hill City Music while with Bedford County Schools and was very happy to accept an offer to return to the company in the summer of 2022 to help facilitate the expansion into Roanoke.
Josh enjoys spending time with his son when not at work.
EDUCATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE
Mike Hand
Mike Hand joined the Hill City Music team as our Educational Representative in the summer of 2023 after an extremely successful career as a high school band director. Mike led award winning band programs with several different schools including Brookville and Heritage here in Lynchburg. Mike brings an expertise and experience to the role of educational representative that allows him to help serve our school programs in a variety of ways from regular school visits for retail and repair needs to instructional feedback and critique. Mike loves working with band directors and as an educational representative he gets to continue doing what he loves, just without the lesson planning.
When not working, Mike enjoys time with family and cheering on the Volunteers of Tennessee!
There are no available educational representative positions with Hill City Music at this time.
REPAIR TECHNICIAN
At Hill City Music we pride ourselves on our repair work and expect every technician that works in our shop to maintain what we consider to be the highest quality instrument repairs in the state. Team members who become repair technicians report directly to the Repair Shop Manager.
Nora Genter
Nora completed her one-year instrument repair apprenticeship in 2020 under the joint instruction of Matt and Joshua. Nora showed a unique knack for the servicing of flute, one of the more challenging instruments to properly repair. While trained in the repair of all wind instruments, she spends much of her time on the bench servicing woodwind instruments leaning into her personal history with clarinet and her natural abilities servicing padded instruments.
When not at the shop, Nora enjoys spending time with her husband, their friends, and their large family of animals including insects, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals.
Brittany Rypkema
Brittany completed her one-year instrument repair apprenticeship in 2022 under the joint instruction of Matt and Joshua. She grew up near the shop, having attended Brookville High and later graduated from Radford University with her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education. A brass player by training, Brittany spends much of her bench time working on brass instruments but has training and experience working on woodwinds and percussion as well.
When not at the shop, Brittany enjoys time with friends, family, and her pets.
To date, all Hill City Music repair technicians have been hired out of our in-house, 2000-hour instrument repair apprenticeship. We find this brings a level of consistency to our repair services, but we are open to meeting with potential technicians and technician apprentices with varying levels of experience. We have a great team in place and we will take the time to find the right person, but we are growing and will need to add to the team as we gain business. We are open to inquiries to joining the repair team, but please note it is highly selective due to the complexity of the job and our high standard of repair work.
If you are interested in joining our team as an instrument repair technician or apprentice please click here.
MUSIC ASSOCIATES
While we do have a large focus in service, retail at Hill City Music is designed around making intelligent, educated suggestions to our customers as well as helping educate budding musicians and their families as they enter the world of instrumental music. Music Associates are the first team members most of our customers will interact with either in store or over the phone. The goal of any Music Associate is to serve our community of customers well and do so with a thorough knowledge of the products and services we provide.
Music Associate is a part-time position. We do prefer applicants with musical backgrounds; having found great success working with lessons teachers and gigging musicians looking for a couple of hours a week to fill in around their teaching/performance schedule. If you are interested in joining our team as a Music Associate please click here.
Private Lessons Studio Teacher
In addition to offering the highest quality repair services, a first-class rental program, and our well curated retail selection, Hill City Music provides exceptional private lesson instruction to the greater Lynchburg and Roanoke areas. We hire teachers that have pursued making music as a career, either through greater education or extensive professional experience. All lessons teachers work flexible schedules of their own making and are provided a safe space in which to teach. We currently work with these teachers in Lynchburg and these in Roanoke. We are always open to meeting new potential teachers; if you are interested please click here.