Bud Roberds was two months shy of his 103rd birthday when he was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program about his life in music. His father was an avid musician, always bringing in...
Kayoko Forrest was born in Japan and always felt drawn to music and in particular the piano. After moving with her mother to the United States, Kayoko played in the school music program. ...
Dale Dawalt admits he knew little about band instruments being a guitarist when he first joined the team at San Diego County Music Exchange in 1990. He was however, eager to learn and he ...
Jeff Bertrand is the president of the music company his parents started back in 1983. His father, John Sr., a former band director wanted to provide much-needed support and supplies to sc...
Dustin Barlow is the head instrument repair technician for Bertrand’s Music in San Marcos, California. He joined the store in 2006 and has since become the repair shop manager as well as ...
John Bertand was not yet 15 years old when he began working in the music store his parents established in 1983 in San Bernardino, California. He remembers helping move glass display cases...
Dennis Hallmeyer has fond memories of his years playing mallet percussion in the school’s marching band, eventually progressing to the xylophone. Beginning in the 7thgrade Dennis took a k...
Ken Donnell is often regarded as the foremost authority on close-mic applications for stringed instruments. While he has an extensive background across the music products industry, first ...
Ron Whittaker was just eleven years old when his father started a music retail store in Long Beach, California. Whittaker Music opened in 1946, just after World War II and Ron still remem...
Dusty Wheeler served as a medic in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War. After the war he attended college all the while playing guitar and giving lessons. In 1979 he opened Dusty’s Gu...
Art Olson brought his love for playing music together with his experience as an instrument salesman to form his own store, Artistic Pianos. The store opened in 1999 in Encinitas, Californ...
Rob Eastman and his wife DeAnna established Musician's Friend in 1983, which became the leading mail order musical instrument business in the country. Rob's father, Bud, opened a music st...
Jim Palenscar opened up his small shop, Steel Guitars of North County, in Oceanside, California back in 2000. While in college, Jim heard the steel guitar on Jackson Browne’s recording of...
David Millard was a teenager when he first walked into Folk Music Center, his local musical instrument store in Claremont, California. The now iconic retailer was a true mom-and-pop opera...
Ellen Harper Verdries grew up in a music store! Her parents, Dorothy and Charles Chase, formed their first store in Massachusetts before moving to Southern California in 1958. The Folk Mu...
Henry Barnes is a wonderful example of the type of luthier and repair technician you want working on your musical instruments. With a background in building guitars for Charvel, Grover Ja...
David Brock is a gifted violin and banjo teacher who provides private lessons at the Folk Music Center in Claremont, California. His long association with the musical instrument store goe...
Lana Negrete grew up in her father’s music store and always had a passion for music and the arts, but she wasn’t sure if music retail was for her. Everything changed when she became a mom...
Cindy Singer met her future husband, Danny, when they were young kids. They began dating in their late teens and were married soon after. Inspired by their love of dancing and music, they...
John Hood was working music retail in the Sacramento area at a very heady time. The California capital was booming with innovative rock and pop bands in the 1980s and 90s while John was a...
Moze Mossay was given a guitar as a gift from his father when he was a kid and he fell in love with the instrument. Moze sought to understand all elements of the guitar and soon found him...
Wayne Seppala was playing organ for shoppers at the Montgomery Wards in San Diego before he was a teenager. When the store stopped selling organs, he landed a job at Ozzie’s Music where h...
Cheryl Seppala has given the gift of music to countless students in her organ store over her career. She has never lost that spark in her eye that has encouraged her students to stay with...
Rita Goldman sat right next to her future husband in high school and recalls with a smile how their friendship turned to a long and loving marriage. She also warmly recalls his passion fo...
Jerry Goldman's father, Harry, opened a wholesale piano business inside Marshall Field's Department store in Chicago with his brother back in 1947. Just over a decade later, Harry and his...
Bob Ulius began working in the music industry when San Francisco retailer, Stu Goldberg, hired Bob at Marina Music in 1969. It was the beginning of a long career that included gigs at Leo...
Chico Fernandez was born in Toronto and began playing drums at the age of three! He studied piano when he was eight and later reconnected with the drums, which he played in local bands bo...
Lois Bach proudly worked beside her husband, Greg, to expand his music business into a strong retail and repair service. Lois joined Greg in the business after a successful career in tele...
Greg Gohde's love for violins and bow making began in college and soon became his life's work. He moved to San Diego from Chicago, where he opened a repair shop and crafted handmade bows....
Abel Sanchez is the noted restoration expert for such piano brands as Steinway and Chickering. Abel was born and raised in northern Mexico on the cattle ranch along with seven brothers. B...
Eleanor Giacoletti began playing piano as a child. While in college, studying music education, she realized she had a strong passion for providing meaningful lessons to young students. In...
Bob Giacoletti and his wife Eleanor opened a small music school in 1978 that soon took on a line of instruments and accessories to become a full line retail store. The store moved to down...
