Mark Cabaniss always wanted to be in the music business. As a music student graduate and composer he was given that chance while teaching college, when Brentwood Music had an opening. The...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Ray Charles, or as he called himself "The Other Ray Charles...
Emily Crocker focused on teaching middle school choir when she was a teacher right out of college. The experience was a wonderful foundation for her as it would lead her to work for Hal ...
Emma Lou Diemer had a long and successful career as a composer, writing classical, choral, and hymn-based organ music. Her work has been published by over 40 different music publishers, i...
Vernon Drane played several musical instruments growing up in Tennessee including the trumpet and saxophone. He later studied instrument repair and spent 68 years (!) working with the Amr...
Nigel Edmund-Jones was the founder of the London Rock Shop. The small store was established in 1980 and became legendary in the music industry for the long list of famous customers. The s...
Walter Ehret was the music arrangers’ equivalent to Mel Blanc – the man with a thousand voices. Walter was the man with a thousand pseudonyms. Under his various names, he arranged for m...
Gladys Hayes taught choir in school for more than 25 years and was very active in vocal programs throughout her career and after her retirement. Gladys and her husband Morris retired to C...
Jerry Jackman is proud of the strong ties he has developed by providing choral and orchestral music to the LDS church in his native Utah. As a music publisher, Jerry has focused his effo...
Don Koller cut his teeth in the print music business at Wingert-Jones working for Frank Fendorf. While there, Don oversaw and controlled the inventory, picked the material for many of the...
Bob Kranendonk sang for the choral group, the Pennsylvanians led by Fred Waring. Bob’s father also sang for the group and in fact together both men had a hit and appeared on the cover of ...
Lloyd Larson has been a prolific composer and arranger for a number of music publishers since the early 1980s. While focusing on church music, Lloyd has also composed for school music pro...
Jerry Mannery enjoyed writing poems and was encouraged by a college professor to set his words to music. When one of his songs was performed by the legacy choir director, Frank Williams, ...
Tom Mathis spent over 50 years in the piano business! Just think of how many instruments he must have sold and all the music currently being made thanks to him! He developed his sales sty...
Bob McGrath, next to Elmo and Big Bird, maybe the most familiar face on Sesame Street. Without question, he is one of the leaders in the promotion of music education and for many years pl...
Dan Miller has always felt a great sense of pride by providing the music people have worshiped to in the many churches he has performed in over the years. He took piano lessons as a child...
Donny Monk is the owner of Allen Organs of the Emerald Coast in Cantonment, Florida. His love of music and the organ began as a child where music seemed to be everywhere he went. He studi...
Jeffrey Pellegrini was mentored as a General Manager for Ted Brown Music by Kent Isenberg, who had been with the company for over 50 years. Jeffery paid close attention to the way Kent ap...
Wanda Pugh always enjoyed singing. As a child she sang in church and later formed several vocal groups and ran different chapters of the Sweet Adalines. Her love of music led her to the N...
Ruth Sibley Bensinger wrote a song called “So Long Sweetheart” when she was a teenager. The song was about lovers split by war. Members of her musically inclined family thought the song...
Frederick Swann was one of the most famous organists of the last 50 years due to his many publications, recitals, church performances and his long run on the television program The Hour o...
Virginia Waring began her musical career as a concert pianist. In fact, it was while performing a duet piano performance on the Fred Waring Radio Program that she first met her future hus...
Doug Williams heard his father singing as far back as he can remember. As a member of the Big Five gospel group, his father encouraged his children to sing in church. Doug sang with his t...
