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

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.