Peekskill craftsman Paul Laubin, a world renowned oboe maker, was found dead by police in his workshop on Monday night. Peekskill police were responding to a call to check on the welfare of the 88-year-old at his studio at 638 Central Avenue and when they arrived they found him unresponsive with no apparent foul play suspected.

 Laubin and his son Alex, like his father before him, have been making oboes for generations. Musicians often wait decades for one of Laubin’s  handmade oboes, known for their beauty and durability. A double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family, oboes made in his workshop sell for approximately $10,000 to $14,000 each – with fewer than a dozen instruments crafted each year. Made of rosewood, cocobolo or grenadilla, the wood stays outside, covered, for ten years to strengthen the wood and refine the sound. It is then brought into the workshop where it is shaped into a cylinder and put in a kiln for a year. Having been exposed to outside air, the instrument is better able to handle outdoor summer concerts and drafty orchestra pits.