Hiroaki Oh-oka sat on a thin mat in front of a leg-less table in his traditional Japanese home where he outlined the history of the bamboo flutes his five- man company produced. The compa...
Paul Shelden was a Professor Emeritus in Music for Brooklyn College and both studied and taught music at Juilliard, beginning on clarinet and saxophone, but branching into electronic musi...
Ellis Day was a familiar face to NAMM show attendees for several decades as the front line trombone player on the opening day’s Petiot All-Industry Marching Band performances. Ellis has h...
Big George Brock knew all about laying his burden down. The blues musician was running his nightclub in 1970 when someone shot up the place to try and hit George. One of the bullets went ...
Ed Boyer began working for Yamaha Corporation of America in 1983 with a focus on the band and orchestral products. With a strong background in retail, Ed developed long-lasting partnershi...
Bunny Kacher began volunteering at the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music in 2002 as part of the second docent training class (the museum opened in 2000). Her love of music is easy ...
Betty Bennett was inspired to pursue a career in music when she was brought along to gigs by her mother and was allowed to sing with her. After Betty’s first paying gig, making 50 cents f...
Ellis Marsalis had a firm idea how to bring out the best music in people, even before his famous sons were born. His understanding of music theory and notation became the cornerstone of ...
Bucky Pizzarelli was a jazz guitarist who helped bring the sounds of the electric guitar into jazz and into popular music, beginning in the 1940s. As a stage performer and later a studio...
Wallace Roney attended the Anaheim NAMM Show in 2018, playing his Kanstul trumpet and taking time to sit down for an Oral History interview. He spoke of his love of the trumpet and some o...
Michael Cooney taught music in the public schools in Massachusetts for over 25 years. During the time of his teaching he also established a high-end flute company in the early 1970s calle...
Tom Pick was the prominent studio engineer who was behind the glass inside RCA Studio B, working alongside producer Chet Atkins when hundreds of hit songs were recorded. During his NAMM i...
Barry Zweig played jazz guitar professionally since he was a teenager. His passion for music was as clear as the smile on his face, and the great style he contributed to music has graced ...
Jim Salzer opened his first store in 1966 with a focus on selling records. At the time Jim was a concert promoter in Southern California and really understood what teenagers and young adu...
David Magagna had an incredible career selling guitars for some of the biggest names in the industry. He worked for the government out of high school and attended college in Georgetown b...
Snooky Flowers was asked to put a band together to go on the road and travel with a young blues singer named Janis Joplin. As her bandleader he helped to prepare her for road performances...
Lynn Sheeley Jr.'s father opened a small piano store in east Tennessee in 1908. After serving in D-Day during World War II, Lynn returned home to work in the store, which he later took ov...
John Santuccio was a noted orchestra manager, and also spent time as President of the music publishing company, G. Schirmer. John’s deep passion for classical music was a key factor in hi...
Peter Pulham had a distinct place in the history of the music products industry, in part because he helped preserve it! As publisher and editor of United Kingdom based Music Business maga...
Bob Scheiwiller taught music for three years before landing a job at a music store; the very first store he would later purchase. Bob bought and opened several music stores over the years...
Robert Averwater’s father, M. J. Averwater taught music, wrote a method book and opened up Amro Music in Memphis, TN, with a fellow music teacher. Robert recalled some of the challenges o...
James McDonald was known simply as Boom Boom to his NAMM family. Following in the footsteps of his father, Boom Boom’s career focused on the trade show industry and early on he became inv...
George Westjohn was hired by Lowell Samuel to oversee the expansion of Mr. Samuel’s interests in the wholesale music business. Mr. Samuel, a former band director, started a music store in...
Bob Rissi was the founder of Risson Amplifier Company, which produces Made-in-America products based on Bob’s own designs. He began designing amplifiers in 1960 when he was hired by Leo ...
John Gronemeyer enjoyed his career in the school band instrument segment of the industry, which included sales positions at CG Conn, King, UMI and Jupiter Band Instruments. John worked fo...
Ron Griggs dreamed of being a band teacher as a child. His career as a teacher was rewarding as he was often stopped in the street by former students who would remark on how much of an im...
Evelyn Brue-Roeder opened her music store in 1940! Her main focus in the early days was music lessons, however she soon added sheet music, accessories and musical instruments. She develop...
Marty Baxter entertained the troops during World War II as a member of a singing quartet. While with bands, such as Frankie Master’s Orchestra, she not only sang but arranged the four pa...
Bob Shane was among the most influential performers of the folk music boom of the late 1950s and 60s. As an original member of the Kingston Trio, Bob was at the cornerstone of the Americ...
Garrett Bowles was always interested in computer technology, music and library science, so it came to no surprise to his family that Garrett found a way to combine the three fields long b...
Sheldon Sazant began working for Steve's Music in Canada in 1978. What he recalls as his first impression of the store was the very tall, big, red-bearded owner, Steve. Steve was bigger...
Karl Hoyer was born in Schönbach/Luby in the Czech Republic to a family of violin makers. As a child, he helped in his father’s workshop, and in 1944, went to the school of violin making ...
