Rosemary Rodd is the president of Leo’s Pro Audio in Oakland, California, and a strong supporter of several key music industry advocacy programs designed to encourage music and music maki...
Pepe Romero Jr literally grew up surrounded by guitars. As part of the Romero family, Pepe was exposed to classic guitars and music from the time he was born. While he learned to play at ...
Alan Rosen sat down for his first interview for the NAMM Oral History program in January 2014. It was a special occasion as it was Alan’s 30th anniversary of his first show and his 30th ...
Bob Ryder grew up surrounded by music and began playing saxophone at an early age. When he and his wife, Janine, had the opportunity to purchase La Jolla Music in the 1990s, Bob was thri...
Janine Ryder and her husband, Bob, owned La Jolla Music on Girard Avenue for several years beginning in the 1990s. At the time, the store needed new product brands, which Janine expanded...
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...
Fred Sanchez is the founder of the band El Chicano, the Latin soul group from Los Angeles, that helped define Latin Rock in the late 1960s and 1970s. The band was formed by several high s...
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...
Peter Schaaphok’s journey with drums began as a child in Hayward, California, where he quickly formed his first band, originally called Black Dawn, now known as Mystic Rage, which he stil...
Vern Schafer joined the family business of moving pianos as a teenager, but had the dream of running his own piano store. While still running the Schafer Piano Movers Company, Vern set ou...
Eric Schoenberg opened his own guitar shop in Tiburon, California after working music retail on the east coast for decades. Over the years he watched the vintage guitar market grow and de...
Eric Schwartz is the Chairman of Sherman Clay, the historic chain of piano stores. The stores are located in the northern half of California and have played a big role in the growth of th...
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...
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...
Maryann Sfarzo has always loved singing! She is fondly remembered in the Baldwin NAMM booth alongside Lowell Simpson as Mr. & Mrs. Baldwin. The two entertained attendees with songs as...
Billy Shaw and his wife Donna opened Desert Piano in Palm Springs after working in a series of piano sales jobs, including one at Colton Piano where the couple met. Billy is well known in...
Tim Shirk likes to say he is a Tim at Tim’s Music and not the Tim. While not the founder, Tim is the general manager of the Sacramento area store, which focuses on band and orchestra sale...
Michael Simmons is a co-founder of the Fretboard Journal and the author of several articles and books about vintage guitars and other fretted instruments. He began his career at Gryphon G...
Paula Simmons wanted to create a shop where good quality instruments could be accessible to all those who came in the store. As a teacher, Paula was very interested in providing lessons ...
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...
Evan Skopp is the president of Inside Track International, which is a boutique sales & marketing firm that works with luthiers and guitar manufacturers. He started out in music at an ...
Allan Small played music as a young student and earned his degree in music education, then became a band director for almost a decade. As a band director in Pennsylvania he was involved ...
Kenny Smith serves as the Managing Director of the Peavey Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard. However, this is only part of what he does in the shop. Kenny is a born salesman and enjoys...
Mike Snyder grew up in Maryland, where his love for drums developed during his teenage years. Spending countless hours at Chuck Levin’s Washington Music, Mike developed a deep connection ...
Steve Soest played in several local rock bands and studied hard on the makes of electric guitars and amps, an expertise that came in handy around 1972 when he began repairing musical inst...
Mary Ellen Sorci was destined for a life filled with music, growing up in a household where her parents’ love for the craft set the tone. Her mother, a skilled violinist, and her father, ...
David St John began his career in music retail in 1967 and since that time he has devoted his career to bringing music and music lessons to the lives of his customers. David worked for a...
Lloyd Stark began his career in the music industry as a teacher in a small string shop in Berkeley, California, providing lessons on bluegrass instruments such as the guitar and banjo. Wi...
Marcia Stearns is a regular attendee at the annual RPMDA conventions and can often be found volunteering to introduce a speaker or tallying the session surveys. Her passion for the busin...
Tom Steuckert is a veteran of the music industry having served as store manager at Union Grove Music in Santa Cruz, a road rep and sales manager. His career began when he helped assemble...
Gary Sunda began building guitar amplifiers under the name Sunda in the 1960s before he was hired by Don Randall to create a new line of amplifiers, Randall Amps. Gary began designing pr...
Pete Surowski is the founder of Pete’s Music store in Anaheim, California. He often uses the tag line that his store is the closest music retailer to the Winter NAMM Show. While perform...
