Greg Lukens (WPS VP) profiled in The Washington Post

A Keen Sense of Hearing, Yes, but Also of Business

Blindness No Bar For Silver Spring Audio Engineer

By Julie Rasicot
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, May 5, 2005; GZ07

(The following article is located at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050401289.html)

Greg Lukens, right, working with Gavin Pearce, is vice president of Washington Professional Systems. (Photos By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)

Two hours before showtime at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Greg Lukens was doing what he does best.

At the back of the 2,000-seat concert hall, Lukens listened carefully as he stood behind a large sound-mixing console with hundreds of switches and knobs.

"Is there anybody on stage but the drums?" Lukens asked with a touch of humor as the children's folk singing duo Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer ran through a sound check of their band's instruments. "There's plenty of drums."

Blind since age 14 as the result of a dirt bike accident, Lukens, 54, uses his special ability to understand sound in doing what's needed to make music sound its best.

"I trust his ears more than anything," said Gavin Pearce, 32, an audio engineer who was working last month with Lukens at the Strathmore concert.

Lukens's talent, plus a knack for understanding technology, has helped him become a nationally known audio engineer who has built two successful businesses over nearly four decades. He is vice president of Washington Professional Systems in Wheaton, a multimillion-dollar company he co-founded with the Levin family, which also owns Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center in Wheaton.

For more than 10 years, Lukens has also been a friend and sounding board for Fink and Marxer, a popular duo from Kensington who have won two Grammy Awards.

"I'm not going to say this lightly: He's the smartest person I've ever met," said Fink, 51. "A lot of people make the assumption that he's got all these extra powers because he's blind. But one of the things that makes Greg incredibly gifted is how he uses his knowledge and talent."

For Lukens, being blind has never been an impediment to success.

"The sighted world brings a tremendous fear from within themselves of not being able to see. They put that fear and perception on how we blind folks ought to live," Lukens said. "There's nothing in this life we don't do. There's never been a time that I said this would be easier if I could see."

Lukens, who lives in Silver Spring, entered the music business at 18 when he started a company that provided sound equipment for bands performing at area venues. Operating out of his mother's home, Lukens began his longstanding relationship with the Levins when he walked into the family's music store in 1968 and "looked around," hoping to rent equipment for a concert by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

Chuck Levin, who owned the store with his wife, Marge, made a deal with the young entrepreneur.

"Chuck didn't say, 'Get out of here,' " Lukens said. "He charged me $300; I charged [the band] $400."

Thus began a collaboration that persisted through the years Lukens ran his concert sound company. Lukens progressed to designing and manufacturing touring sound systems for bands. From 1975 to 1983, he was often on the road with the rock band Rush, with a sound system designed by his company.

Gold and platinum albums of two of the group's records hang in Lukens's office. "They gave me those as a thank-you gift for helping to sell those albums," he said.

Lukens sold the business in the mid-1980s and started Washington Professional Systems with the financial backing of the Levin family. The company designs, sells and installs high-end audio and visual systems to clients including Fortune 500 companies and federal, state and local governments.

"One of the key assets was the success of the Levin family in their business and the success that brought to us instantly," he said.

The company's projects range from upgrading sound systems at airports to designing a communications system identical to a submarine's for use in land-based training. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the company installed an upgraded communications system in the Pentagon to keep employees informed during emergencies, Lukens said.

"We don't really care whether or not you're in the music business," he said.

But music remains a strong component of Lukens's business. In addition to producing recordings for musicians, he has worked in many of the area's concert venues, including installing a sound system designed by a Colorado company at the Music Center at Strathmore, which opened in February.

He recently completed a $1.5 million project that included designing and installing audio, video and lighting systems for Rams Head Live!, a club in Baltimore that opened in December. "Many local performance venues have my thumbprint on them," he said.

Lukens credits advances in technology with helping him continue his success. But it's his finely tuned sensibilities that make him a master in his field, friends and colleagues say.

Lukens can walk into a room and, with a clap of his hands, determine its size and what type of sound system it needs.

"I have a unique gift of taking in large amounts of audio information," he said.

"He's just able to hear such a great amount of fine detail," added Fink, who said Lukens has helped her and her partner become more comfortable with technology and confident in their abilities.

"He uses his talent over and over again to bring enjoyment to other people.

"He uses it to help other people accomplish what they're trying to do," she said. "He's a great connector of people."

Lukens defines job satisfaction as being able to use technology and his talents to deliver a musician's vision to an audience.

"At the end of the day, if I get to do that, I go home happy," he said.

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