About Cooperman Company
We're celebrating our official 65th anniversary in 2026, but Cooperman Company actually goes back to the mid-1950s, when the earliest workshop of what was to become Cooperman Fife & Drum Co was the Mount Vernon NY basement of founder Patrick H. Cooperman, a rudimental snare drummer in his local VFW Post drum corps.
Frame Drum crafting developed organically as part of the Cooperman Fife & Drum Company’s original mission to offer the finest steam-bent, single-ply drums. Soon after the company's Centerbrook CT shop was established (1975) Pat Cooperman started making bodhran drums which were sold primarily at folk music shops in the New York area. Fortuitously, an upcoming student -Glen Velez (now recognized as the “father of American frame drumming) - purchased a large diameter Cooperman bodhran, and suggested that there was a wonderous world of possibilities with frame drums. By the 1990’s Cooperman began working with a group of world-stage percussionists to evolve the offerings, including a patented tuning system and the widespread application of synthetic heads to frame drums. Today, the evolution of design combined with traditional craft skills has become the hallmark of Cooperman drums and ongoing part of the Cooperman Company vision statement.
The Mill and Workshop
That earliest Cooperman workshop in Mount Vernon NY was focused on drum sticks and fifes, the basis of part-time production by a workforce of 3 men. By 1975 the operation had expanded to include a full line of rope tension drums, and a full-time staff of instrument makers was employed at a new workshop in Centerbrook CT. For more than 30 years Centerbrook was the home base for the growing line of Cooperman instruments and products. In 1987, the Cooperman Company purchased and began revitalizing the old sawmill and wood bending operation of the Maplecraft Manufacturing Company of Bellows Falls VT, where Cooperman craftsman learned the skills of selecting trees in the local forests for their unique tone qualities and bending characteristics, as well as the craft of sawing the logs and steam-bending the lumber. In 2006 all Cooperman operations were consolidated here at our Vermont mill. With the addition of the drum stick turners, drumwrights, and expert fife makers who had honed their skills in the lower Connecticut River Valley, the Vermont mill became the center of Cooperman’s proud heritage trades.
The Cooperman Company Businesses
There is a long tradition in the United States of musical instruments companies being involved in other trades that utilize similar machinery in order to justify the expense of sophisticated equipment, and Cooperman is no exception. In addition to the musical instruments we make directly for bands and musicians worldwide, we manufacture a line of traditional toys, games, and inexpensive musical instruments for the museum gift shop trade; we supply other manufacturers in the music trade with parts for their own brand instruments; and we make a custom line of wooden boxes for the gourmet food industry. Links to the various web stores and sites that reflect these product lines are included on this site - contact us for more information.
Cooperman Company
1007 Route 121
Bellows Falls VT 05101 USA
coopermanvt@gmail.com
802-463-9750
Office hours: 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Visitors by appointment only