Our People
A Little Bit About Our People
Who are we? Well there are two of us!
Aaron Keim
Aaron’s love of traditional string band music and jazz brought him to Boulder, CO in 2003 to study for his graduate degree in music history with Tom Riis at the University of Colorado. As soon as Aaron rolled into town, he got a job selling folk instruments at H.B. Woodsongs, further fueling his passion for research and performance of American roots music styles. While at Woodsongs, Aaron blossomed into a diverse multi-instrumentalist. Besides his accomplished string bass playing, Aaron specializes in old time styles for ukulele, banjo and guitar. Aaron plays with Boulder Acoustic Society and performed and taught all over North America.
Aaron’s interest in building and restoring musical instruments began in 2002 when he was teaching orchestra in the public schools. There was no money for repair of the school’s instruments so Aaron took it upon himself to repair them. For the past three years, Aaron has spent countless hours looking over the shoulders of famous luthiers all over the country. He specializes in restoring and building mandolins, ukuleles and banjos. Bean Sprout was born out of Aaron’s search for the perfect banjo ukulele. I think he has found it!
You can see Aaron on these web sites:
http://www.boulderacousticsociety.net/
http://www.myspace.com/aaronckeim
http://cdbaby.com/cd/keim
Heidi Litke
Earning a Degree in Forestry in 1985 at Sir Sandford Fleming College, Heidi worked a short time in Canada as a Forest Fire Fighter, a Cartographer, and Junior Wildlife Officer. Married in 1985, Heidi and her husband Robert then moved to Colorado in 1986. There she worked as a Park Ranger with the State and then as an officer on the Wheat Ridge Police Department. During those years Heidi earned a second degree in Photography in 1990. The next ten years were quite adventurous. She opened and sold two successful businesses. The first was Peak Stock Photography, shooting real estate pictures and the second was Peak Vending, a bulk candy vending company. Heidi managed a retail store for This End Up Furniture, turning store sales around by 250%. She also worked at Fabric Expressions, reorganizing the shipping department which dramatically decreased shipping costs and errors.
Heidi’s enjoyed spending time volunteering as a Special Olympics golf coach and helping team members achieve their goals. Heidi was also involved as an Executive Assistant with National Distribution preparing the company’s daily, weekly and monthly reports, writing procedures manuals, and assisting with conventions and marketing. Heidi is an amateur ukulele player and Director of the Denver Ukulele Orchestra and a committee member of Ukulele Community - Denver.
You can see Heidi on these web sites:
http://www.denverukuleleorchestra.com/
http://www.myspace.com/heidilitke
http://www.youtube.com/user/heidilitke
Aaron and Heidi compliment each other’s skills to deliver the best product to you! Together we proudly give you Bean Sprout!