Jerry Ash recalls his father, Sam Ash, giving him a pocketful of change and sending him off on the subway to New York City to pick up the sheet music orders from the publishers. With nick...
Sammy Ash was named after his grandfather, the founder of the Sam Ash Music Company in New York City. Like his grandfather, Sammy had a deep passion and understanding of the music busine...
John D’Addario's family has been shaping the music industry since the 1670s, when Donato D’Addario began crafting strings by hand. Following in this legacy, John's father pioneered synthe...
Jim D’Addario has worked long and hard within the research and development arm of D'Addario & Co., along with his brother John Jr. Headed by Jim, the engineering department has accumu...
Don Johnson received his degree in journalism and later landed the editor’s job at a recording industry trade magazine. Years later the magazine was sold to the owners of the Music Merc...
Joe Lamond has been a music maker since he was a young boy. After touring with several bands and rock performers, Joe became the manager of Skip’s Music in Sacramento, California, before ...
Susan Lipp has a background in the theater, which she has used to great success in running the pro-audio distribution company Full Compass. The company was formed by her husband, Jonathan...
Jonathan Lipp formed a recording studio, which by 1977 turned into a pro audio distribution company he called Full Compass. In the early days of the company he focused on the radio broadc...
Mary Luehrsen is a music advocate dedicated to music education and promoting support for music education. As Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations for NAMM and a former mus...
Felice Mancini grew up in a home full of music. Her father was an Oscar-winning composer and her mother is the noted vocalist who formed the Society of Singers. Felice has devoted herself...
Keith Mardak provided great detail of the history of Hal Leonard Publishing, especially the stories of the company's founder, who passed away years ago, before they could be interviewed f...
George Quinlan Jr. began working in the store his father established before he can remember, sweeping up on weekends and helping with band rental season in the fall. George worked in ever...
George Quinlan was proud of his store outside of Chicago, for which the walls are full of photographs of the children he rented or sold an instrument to, and the fact that he survived har...
Chuck Surack is the founder and president of Sweetwater Sound, one of the landmark companies within the music products industry. He formed the company in 1979 and worked hard to gather t...
David Teeple’s first job in the music industry was working for the large Grinnell Brothers chain in the 1960s, based in Michigan. When he was asked to teach guitar, he had to first learn ...
Steve West took over his father’s store and went on to become an industry leader who served as president of the NAMM Board. Steve recalls the days as a boy running around West Music as hi...
