Tonya Adams played piano beginning at the age of six, switching to the flute in the fifth grade and realizing music was going to be a key part of her life. She finished her degree in musi...

Larry Redhouse grew up in a house with six siblings who were all, like their mother, very musical. The family formed a musical act, the Redhouse Band, in the late 60s. The band played a l...

Charles Owens has always believed in the importance of music education; after all, his own career began while attending the University of San Diego. As a result, Charles kept returning to...

Mutter Slater played harmonica, flute and sang as a member of the influential British band Stackridge beginning in 1970s. Although often categorized as a progressive rock band, their soun...

Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel...

Dave Mount remembers working with his grandfather, Kurt Gemeinhardt, and learning first hand several important elements of the business including customer service and a focus on quality. ...

Hubert Laws Jr. is an American flutist and saxophonist with a rich family history in the music industry. Specializing in jazz and classical, Hubert started playing the flute in high schoo...

Gene (Cip) Cipriano began his musical career with the big bands led by such stars as Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, and Tex Beneke. He later moved to Los Angeles where he soon began his incre...

Jim Horn, part of the “Wrecking Crew”, started playing the saxophone as a child and eventually expanded his musical reach to include the flute, oboe, and French horn, even playing the obo...

James Hall saw his sister’s flute and wondered if he could make one out of glass. He bought a glass tube from his university’s science supply and used his brother’s blow torch to make fin...

Karl Denson has played the saxophone alongside Lenny Kravitz, The Rolling Stones, Jack DeJohnette, Switchfoot, and the Blind Boys of Alabama (among others). He was the co-founder of the a...

Angela Koregelos grew up playing the flute and taking lessons from her father, George Koregelos. George owned his own retail store and Angela has fond memories of working alongside her fa...

Ryan West shared many of his memories of traveling abroad with his father, Steve, to understand and appreciate how the business great and diversified including their early distribution of...

Anthony Ortega was a mainstay on the west coast jazz scene beginning in the 1940s. Growing up in Watts, Anthony (known as Tony) went to school with and was exposed to many of the era's Lo...

Joe Butkevicius became a flute specialist as an instrument repairman. Over the years Joe worked in music retail, for Pearl Flutes and now is employed by KHS.  Joe has also been very activ...

Hiroaki Oh-oka sat on a thin mat in front of a leg-less table in his traditional Japanese home where he outlined the history of the bamboo flutes his five- man company produced. The compa...

Roger Glenn recalls with a smile the years he attended the NAMM Show as a product endorser, showcasing the FRAP.  As a second generation jazz musician (his father was Tyree Glenn who play...

Arnie Lazarus invented what is largely regarded as the first three dimensional transducer for musical instruments in 1969.  That same year he established a company that echoed the name of...

Mark Thomas was a noted flute player who toured the world and recorded several albums during his long career.  As a product endorser, Mark appeared in several printed ads over the years a...

Qian Ni is a classically trained flutist and the President of the Eastman Music Company, making him one of the passionate music makers within our industry!  His devotion to customer servi...

Steve Bosse served as president of the Artley Flute Company in the years after his father, Richard, led the company.  Richard and Steve worked together to expand the company and relocate ...

David Straubinger started a small business in 1969 to repair and rebuild woodwind instruments. He determined early on that one area of consistent concern was they way flute pads were repl...

Mari Mach spent nearly 40 years in the music industry in and around Elkhart, Indiana. She began her career in the sales department working for C. G. Conn for four years before being offer...

Tony Spano began repairing instruments in high school and was perfect for the job as a retail store repairmen, which he started doing in Ohio after the army in 1957.  He later worked with...

Chieko Nakamura is the CEO for Jujiya Musical Instrument Company in Ginza, Tokyo. The harp and flute retailer is also known by the shorter name Ginza Jujiya. The company was established i...

Joe Cook began working in the music products industry with Selmer in 1966 with a focus on the saxophone products.  He joined the Gemeinhart Flute Company in 1986 and remained with the fam...

Tom Lacy began working for Armstrong flutes right out of high school in 1971 in the very plant he is working some 40 years later for the Conn-Selmer Company in Elkhart, Indiana.  Along th...

Steve Lynn began working with his brother in 1974, finishing flutes for the Gemeinhart Company in Elkhart, Indiana.  Three years later he joined the Armstrong Company as an experienced fi...

DeAnne Gordy began working in the music industry with Gemeinhardt in 1989.  The world famous flute and piccolo maker, located in Elkhart Indiana, was established in 1948.  Over the years ...

Tony Whitt began his career in the industry with the Linton oboe company in Elkhart, Indianan.  He later began working for Gemeinhart, which has been where he has been for most of his 52 ...

Kent Stutzman was hired by Gemeinhart in the 1970s and has remained with the flute builder for over 35 years!  During his career, Kent has worked in several positions on the line as well ...

Wally Evans grew up in Wales with music all around him. He played piano and sang in church. He later learned to play the guitar and worked in several bands at night and worked in a power ...