Recently I went down to visit the Brennen Brothers flute company with some colleagues and their students. We had a unique opportunity for a tour of the workshop. One of my flute friends, Rachael, recently met someone who used to work for Brannen. He and his wife arranged the visit for us (what great people by the way, they were so charming.)
The tour took us through the entire process of how a flute is made, starting with the tiny castings that are later assembled by hand into keys. The hours of work that goes into every part of the flute is just phenominal. Their standards were very high, and every piece had to be precise in the beginning or problems could arise later in the flute making process.It was really fascinating!
The TV show “How it’s Made” once did an episode that featured Brannen Flutes. The following video will give you an idea of the process we saw.