AJ Altieri began working in the music retail business in the mid 1970s after a childhood filled with music. He played in bands as a student along with being a Drum Major, before performin...
Grace Altieri has a background in law but was willing to put that career on hold when her husband decided to open a drum shop in Tampa. AJ was working for a local music store and was real...
Julia Arza is the Director of Operations and a passionate advocate for AIMM, the Alliance of Independent Music Merchants. She joined the organization in 2017 and has helped expand its sum...
Don Banks was a band director who felt he could have more of an impact on music makers by providing them with quality instruments. In 1967 he opened Don Banks Music in Tampa, Florida to s...
Mitchel Banks has been working in the music store his father established as far back as he can remember. After serving as a band director, Don Banks formed his retail store in Tampa in 1...
Val Bernardo is the unofficial activities director at Blues Angel Music in Pensacola, Florida. Creating the Bamily Hall of Fame, a sticker program with a large display on the store wall, ...
Greg Billings is the retired president of the Steinway Piano Gallery of Naples in Florida. Greg is also a very active member of the music products industry, appearing on panel discussions...
Theo Boylan grew up in a small town 80 miles from Chicago and has a musical performance background in both piano and oboe. As a small child, she began her love of classical music at the p...
Daryl Brooke opened a music store in Key West, Florida after retiring from the computer industry in 2012. The store was a dream of his and made perfect sense, especially considering his f...
O’Lyn Callahan has played the piano since she was eight years old and started on organ at age twelve after receiving a Hammond B3 from her father. She came in third place at a Yamaha orga...
Jeff Chafin worked side by side with his father, the founder of Chafin Musiccenter for many years. Jeff learned many key elements to the business that has served him well since taking ov...
Sue Chafin brings an honest smile and warm greeting to all those who walk into Chafin Musiccenter in Lake Worth, Florida. After marring Jeff, the son of the founder of the store, she wor...
Dana Clark grew up singing and playing with her family in church. She was just three when she started performing and within ten years she was already providing music lessons to others. Re...
Michele Clark attended college in Columbus, Mississippi, where she visited DC Music one day to find a case for her guitar. There she met her future wife, Dana. The two soon discovered the...
Mike Clark has had a few stand-out customer experiences working in music retail since the early 1990s. He began at Dollarhide Music in Pensacola in 1994 in the store room and worked his w...
Dana Daniel played drums for his father’s big band when he was young. Being exposed to not just the musical side of performances from a young age, Dana became interested in the production...
Nan DeStafney served her country as a United States Navy nurse. As she neared retirement, she met navy man Jim DeStafney who had the idea of opening his own music store. The two were marr...
Jim DeStafney is the co-owner of Blues Angel Music in Pensacola, Florida. After completing a 24-year career as a Navy fighter pilot, Jim opened the shop in 1997. Blues Angel Music has bee...
William Dollarhide was the president and co-owner, along with his wife Margaret, of Dollarhide’s Music Center in Pensacola, Florida. He grew up in a very musical family, with his mother a...
Barry Frost thoroughly enjoys his role as the manager of the piano department at Blues Angle Music in Pensacola. Being in the position of providing the right piano for his customers is me...
Paul Garcia along with his brother Fred and sister Lucy formed a group called The Garcia’s. Since they all sang and played from an early age, and were always encouraged by their father, i...
Gary Grimes played a very vital role in the early part of his career, working in the music education department at Wurlitzer. Gary wrote many of the training programs for Wurlitzer as wel...
Charles Hale had an idea to hire a monkey to show how an easy-play organ could be operated by anyone. The hysterically funny ads were one of a million clever ideas Hale used in selling ke...
David Hosler had a friend in school whose father had a wood-working shop. It was in that small shop where David built his first guitar and where his passion for making instruments began. ...
John Jarvis is the president and owner of the music retail store in Florida, Music Man. His father was a band director back in 1944 who retired to Florida in 1973 and opened a small store...
Frank Kilgard worked for Streep Music in Florida before opening his own band instrument repair shop in Georgia. His strong interest in quality repair led to a life time of learning new t...
Kathi Kretzer is the founder of Kretzer Piano in Jupiter, Florida. She established the store in 1985 and has since been an active member of the music industry as well as her local commun...
Jeff Lee is the president of Resurrection Drums in Hollywood, Florida, a mecca for percussionists for miles around. Jeff is one of the most passionate members of the music industry you w...
Tony Leonard is the president of Playground Music, a Florida-based music store his father established in 1961. With a strong focus on school music and print, Tony has continued with many ...
Danny Marquez began playing drums in his father's church from the age of four! One day as a teenager he walked into Chafin Musiccenter in Lake Worth, Florida for a set of sticks. While ...
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...
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...
