Frank Fendorf served as a school band director for many years beginning with the high school band in Warrensburg, MO in 1947. He enjoyed the role of band director and in fact was doing ...
Maynard Ferguson’s first big time gig was with the Boyd Raeburn Orchestra. He later played his unique trumpet style, with plenty of high notes, with Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Dorsey, Stan Ken...
Jesus "Jet" Fernando opened a small music retail store with his wife, Elizabeth, in their native Philippines. Elizabeth grew up in her parent's store across town and knew the business sid...
Lloyd Fillio grew up in the band instrument capital, Elkhart, Indiana. His father worked in the industry as did his uncle and cousin (Ernie Kenaga who was also interviewed). It seemed nat...
Elliot Fine is best known to percussion students for the method book he wrote with Marvin Dahlgren called 4-Way Coordination, which was first published in 1963. Over the years, he has pub...
Mike Finnigan was a leading Hammond B3 performer who recorded with many of the top performers in pop, rock, and jazz for nearly 60 years, although his soul had always been rooted in rhyth...
Imero Fiorentino was considered by many the father of pro-lighting! He began his career just as television was coming into its own in the early 1950s. He worked on live broadcast with new...
Vic Firth was a classically trained timpanist, playing with a number of highly regarded symphonies around the world. Over the years he developed a few ideas that improved on the way malle...
Herbert Fischbach spent his entire working career in the design and crafting of brass musical instruments. As was the tradition in the German village of Markneukirchen, Herbert studied th...
Randy "Baja" Fletcher was a well respected production manager of live events who won the 2010 Parnelli Life Time Achievement Award for his dedication to the industry. His long and passio...
Jesse Flores was the founder of Flores Music stores located in Peoria and Pekin, Illinois. He had the idea of surrounding himself with music when he was a young boy and when the chance ca...
Alfredo Flores was born in Mexico in 1908 and moved to San Antonio, Texas with his mother and grandmother when he was a small boy. He took several jobs as a young man including a position...
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...
DJ Fontana drove down to Houston in a pink Cadillac with Elvis Presley after being hired as the then unknown singer’s first drummer. They pulled up to Herbie Brodstein’s Drum Shop (Herb w...
Frank Ford was beginning to build guitars and mandolins when he met Richard Johnston. The two guitar lovers decided to open a repair shop in Palo Alto, California called Gryphon Stringed...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Helen Forrest was often called the Sweetheart of the Big Ba...
Wolfgang Förster’s family-owned piano company was formed in 1859 by August Förster, who opened a small piano workshop in "Löbau, Germany. Wolfgang grew up in the family business and recal...
Orrin Foslien grew up around music. He started out playing the ukulele, then moved to the banjo and guitar. In high school he began singing in the choir and playing the trombone. Around 1...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Chuck Foster was a bandleader's bandleader! During the Big ...
Fred Foster is a legendary name in Nashville music history. His role first as a record promoter then producer helped the careers of many performers and resulted in hundreds of hit recordi...
Alan Fox’s father Hugo Fox played in the symphony orchestra in Fort Wayne, Indiana, before being drafted for service in World War I. After the war, he began making reeds and in 1923 joine...
Maurice Fox loves selling organs to area churches. In fact, even after a retirement from the presidency of Fox’s Music in Charleston, South Carolina, (his son now holds that position), he...
Clem Frak worked for King Musical Instruments for 35 years! As vice president of sales, Clem was well known by many of the veteran dealers for his integrity. Retailer Bob Menchey stated, ...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Joe Franklin was a music historian who had a series of radi...
Andy Fraser took part in the second wave of the British Invasion in the late 1960s as a member of Free. He joined the group as a teenager and in fact was instrumental in the writing of t...
Dallas Frazier was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame for writing such hits as "There Goes My Everything" and "Elvira." "There Goes My Everything" has been recorded doze...
Jerry Freed began working in the music industry along with Tommy Moore. Together they promoted percussive instruments for schools and built Kasuga International in the 1960s. Jerry later ...
Dr. Robert Freeland was among this country’s first to earn a PhD in music librarianship. He worked for the Henry Ford Library and was noted for his national column on classic recording re...
Larry Fresch Sr. exuded the passion and the love of music that is so much a part of this industry. His four Fresch Music stores in Ohio not only became part of their communities, they enc...
Gene Fresco was one of the top sales reps of our industry. As a mentor and teacher, he provided real and practical sales methods to countless men and women in and out of the music product...
Donnie Fritts was born in Florence, Alabama, the right place at the right time to grow up to become a studio musician and songwriter. Just a little way down the road from where Donnie gr...
John Fry was the founder of Ardent Records and a noted recording engineer with a special talent for sound mixing and studio sound control. The results of his efforts are enough to fill se...