Juan Novo was born in Habana Cuba seven years before the communist Castro regime took totalitarian control of this burgeoning island paradise and turned it into an isolated, run down specter of her former glory. He came to the U.S. unaccompanied when he was nine years old through “Operation Peter Pan,” a clandestine operation that succeeded in rescuing over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minor children from communist indoctrination and control by the communist Castro regime. The operation was run and directed by Monsignor Bryan O. Walsh of the Catholic Welfare Bureau in Miami, Florida. By the time he was nineteen, Juan had become a professional musician and was making a living as a percussionist playing music in the San Francisco area under contract to Warner Brothers Studios in a band called “Fat City.” In 1976 he graduated from Spokane Falls Community College with degrees in both music theory and musical instrument repair and restorations and has been active as a practicing professional technician in this field for the past 48 years.Mr. Novo founded the Research and Development Committee for the National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT) in 1983, served as Chairman of that Committee for two consecutive years and authored a work entitled: “The Grenadilla Story,” a study of a particular African wood that has been used to make woodwind musical instruments for over a century. Moreover, Mr. Novo has written technical repair and restoration articles published in the Association’s trade journal TechniCom. Although Juan switched careers and entered the musical instrument repair field full time in 1976, he continued to play percussion as a hobby and has performed in concerts with Jazz legends such as the late Dizzy Gillespie and Ira Sullivan.Since 1983, Mr. Novo has been making professional model Grenadilla wood mouthpieces for the metal concert flute which are played by both amateur and professional flutists worldwide. Between 1981 and 1984, he was awarded two U.S. patents on instrument designs. One of these, patent # 4,685,373, is for the transparent FANTASIA flute he invented in 1984: a transparent flute that is illuminated with colored lights during performance. The first such instrument, built in 1985, was commissioned by the late Julius Baker, principal flautist for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. This instrument was later purchased by the late New York Latin-Jazz flutist Dave Valentin and is featured in one of his albums entitled, “Light Struck.” The FANTASIA flute made U.S. Patent history, for it was the first illuminated musical wind instrument to be awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent Office. As a result, a new division had to be created for it and it remains to this day the only such instrument in its class.In the late 80s, Mr. Novo served for a brief time as editor of the Sunshine Jazz Messenger, the newsletter for Miami’s Sunshine Jazz Organization. His work with musical instruments have been featured in several TV specials and articles about him and his work have appeared in both foreign and domestic newspapers, magazines, and periodicals. Mr. Novo returned to the practice of his Catholic faith in 1989, began teaching CCD classes, and is an avid student of Catholic theology and philosophy.Read more about this authorRead less about this author