Ray Gerlich is the long-serving production engineer at Hammond Suzuki, and began playing the organ when he was ten years old. While in high school he was given the opportunity to apprenti...

Peter Nguyen joined the team at Hammond Suzuki in 1998 and serves as the Chicago-based company’s Chief Financial Officer. He began as the Controller and enjoyed his early years at the com...

Glen Kersten and his wife were just married when they rented a small house that turned out to be owned by Frank Lohnes. Mr. Lohnes also owned a music store called Dearborn Piano & Org...

David Sancious always had records playing in his home growing up and his dad would take him to jazz clubs when he was just a child to sit by the stage so he could see the piano player. As...

Joe De Fio has had a long and exciting career in the music industry, especially in the area of piano sales! His career began in 1968 when he was hired as a salesman for Clark Music in New...

Antoni Punti and Gabriel teamed up with Keith Mardak in 1972 to form Hal Leonard Spain. The company’s success was fueled by the home organ boom, which was an important milestone of growth...

Manel Punti is the Managing Director of Music Distribution, a wholesale business in Spain that his father established in the 1960s. Manel grew up in the music industry as well as a musica...

Gabriel Lara was asked to create a series of music books with the Hal Leonard company for the Spain market beginning in 1972. Along with his business partner, Antoni Punti, Gabriel worked...

Roger Smith began playing the piano and singing in church at an early age, quickly falling in love with the way people reacted to the music he performed. He was introduced to the Hammond ...

Tom Thompson first heard an organ in a small church as a child and knew at that moment that somehow, someway, that instrument would be a part of his life. He was right! His first job in t...

Sonny Wittkopp studied business in college and landed a job as a bookkeeper for a local music store in Washington state. This experience generated a great passion for the music industry w...

Bob Olsen often said because he did not play a musical instrument yet had a successful career in the music products industry that he was “a vegetarian in the business of prime meat.” The ...

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...

Larry Dvoskin can trace his passion for music back to an early age when he was classically trained on the piano. He purchased a guitar while in high school to gain the attention of girls ...

Papa John DeFrancesco was taught music by his father, a saxophonist for several big bands during the great Swing era. Papa John first played trumpet and later began playing the organ, whi...

Bill Jones is the founder of Bill Jones Music in Knoxville Tennessee.  The retailer started in 1973 with a focus on piano and organs, which was during the height of the organ boom. Over t...

Roy Larrick was a well-known sales rep for Hammond Organs and Panasonic's Technics products before opening his own retail store.  Larrick Piano & Organ in Northern California was esta...

Scott May knew since he was five years old that he wanted to play the organ!  He fell in love with the endless possibilities of the instrument as he grew and discovered that the Hammond w...

Muriel Long began teaching piano in 1959 and since that time two things have been very clear to those who know her, she is a passionate music maker and a heck of a salesperson! She grew u...

Ryo Okumoto began his professional musical career as a keyboardist during the height of the electronic musical instrument boom of the 1970s.  The synthesizer was growing nearly every mont...

Keith Beckingham recalls watching his father, a church organist, playing the piano at home and then sitting down and copying the music he heard. He grew up fascinated by the piano and org...

Cliff Unruh has a background in marketing and was pursuing such a career when he was given the opportunity to sell Hammond Organs –and he jumped at the chance.  He fell in love with the i...

Michael Falkenstein grew up in a very musical family.  His father was repairing musical instruments when Michael was a small child.  Michael watched his father work in the music industry ...

Bernie Capicchiano was coached from the Accounting world to manage a new music retail store for the Brash Group in Australia in 1973.His long career in the industry includes a strong rela...

Scott Russ grew up in the music business, crawling around the floor.  His parents opened a music retail store in 1947, before Scott was born.  Growing up, Scott fell in love with the Hamm...

Thomas Austin was a key part of the Sherman Clay team for over 40 years!  The store chain focused on pianos; however, Thomas recalls the home organ boom in the 1970s as the company was a ...

Robert Schaeffer is the resident historian for Rice Music House in South Carolina.  Having been in the store since he was a young boy, getting to meet with the founder and having worked i...

Jerry Olson purchased a small music store in the early 1950s after teaching along-side his wife in their home town.  Soon the store grew and other locations throughout Minnesota were esta...

Dr. Lonnie Smith was among the well respected organists who endeared himself within the music products industry as a master of the Hammond B3, who often demonstrated his skills for fellow...

Lyle Bird grew up in a musical family with his mother playing the piano daily. As a teenager he played trumpet in several swing bands during the big band era including with such leaders a...

Hal Cowan studied business administration while playing music all through school. He loved playing organ and found himself in the company of fellow organ buffs as well as employees of org...

Jack Ripperger was the director of marketing for the Hammond Organ Company for seven years, at the height of the home organ boom in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. During hi...