Rich Schermerhorn is a proud volunteer at NAMM’s Museum of Making Music, located in Carlsbad, California. The museum has several positions for volunteers and Rich seems to do most of them...
Al Murrell recalls being hooked on the Pipe Organ when he was just three years old. That special sound, which could be loud and haunting, could also be soft and soothing. As a young boy, ...
John Hopkins became best friends with Chuck Surack, the founder of Sweetwater Sound, thanks to one phone call. Running his own heating and air condition company by day and helping his cla...
Christoph Bull is the organ professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His deep passion for music stems from his grandmother’s piano and his early days playing organ i...
Pete Brown is a Principal Software Engineer in Windows at Microsoft and oversees the company’s MIDI 2.0 implementation. He grew up in Massachusetts and was introduced to synthesizers whil...
Jeff Jacobs grew up in Chicago and remembers going to Gand Music to buy his first very own instrument, although his parents had an upright piano in their home. Jeff’s purchase was the eve...
Keith Alexander played the important role of Director of Operations for the Los Angeles-based swing band, the Big Band Alumni. The band, whose leader is Bill A. Jones, was established in ...
Dave Rivard has thoroughly enjoyed his role at Roland Corporation as a sales rep. He has grown the role over the years and covered nearly every state, making connections, introducing new ...
Cosmo Watts is a multi-talented musician and songwriter who played an important role in the music products industry as a sound designer, synthesizer programmer and music teacher. Growing ...
Christy Coobatis is a college music professor whose amazing musical journey includes playing professionally before he was a teenager, beta testing guitars for Leo Fender, and helping to c...
Chris Martirano started working for Kurzweil Music Systems in 1986. For the first few years he was on the sales side of the equation, originally the district sales manager for the northea...
Gregory Farmer is an enthusiastic, talented, self-taught synthesist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and producer. He has collected and plays a wide range of electronic and ac...
Phil Burk has had a passion for electronics since he was a kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He built radio circuits before he was a teen and combined that interest with his l...
Dave Amels is a huge fan of the Hammond B-3 organ, which he’s played on records and with garage rock bands including Husky Team and The Reigning Sound. In the late ’80s he co-founded Voce...
Rich Formidoni cut his teeth in the industry as a salesman in the keyboard division of Sam Ash Music in Queens, New York. That experience led to his move to Korg in 2005 as a product spec...
Jeff Nelson's mother was a sought-after pianist who had a regular gig in San Francisco playing at the Top of the Mark. As a kid, Jeff took lessons from a woman who had the best name for a...
Ryan Clement was among the first employees at Grandma’s Music in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Established by Micky Patten in 1986, the store gained a strong reputation for selling pro audio a...
Micky Patten, a lifelong musician who studied Jazz in College, always wanted to provide a space for musicians to shop for gear and feel comfortable. With that vision and dream, Micky open...
Nancy Kewin Smith is a pioneering senior executive who served the music products industry in an era in which she was among a small number of women in high-ranking positions. After earning...
Mark Altekruse, like so many passionate members of the music industry, specifically remembers the lessons he learned from one of his earliest and most influential music instructors. Tromb...
Brockett Parsons is proud of the musical education he received in grade school, which was furthered by participating in the school band program at his high school. He went on to graduate ...
Dallas Smith began playing the clarinet at the age of eleven. By the time he was in high school he was in an all-star group and later focused on classical music throughout college. His l...
James Brady was front and center during the MIDI boom, working within the keyboard department at Rushworth’s Music House in Liverpool. The year was 1986 and the synthesizer was at its pea...
Mike Soldano says he was late to game, picking up the guitar when he was 20, but soon made up for lost time by jumping in with both feet! He studied the instrument and listened to live an...
Greg Mathieson spoke passionately about his career in music during his NAMM Oral History interview. He brought up some very interesting points, such as his views on working on the road vs...
Daniel Haver was heavily influenced by the music he heard at home as a kid and wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an entrepreneur. He combined his love of music with hi...
Peggy Dahl-Bartunek grew up with four siblings who all took piano lessons – they even had two pianos in their house! Since the fifth grade, Peggy knew that she wanted to be a teacher and ...
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...
Jim Wilson incorporates his experiences as a gigging musician (he formed a duo in college and later played a Fender P-Bass in several rock bands) into the work he does as a piano technici...
Tim Ryan still a student at the California Institute of Technology in 1978 when he and two partners formed a company to produce a highly innovative, all digital synthesizer which they bra...
Rick Anderson was in a MBA program that required he write a research paper about a local business. This was his introduction to the Rodgers Instrument Corporation located in Hillsboro, Or...
Bobby Fernandez grew up surrounded by music and developed an interest in film music at a young age. He always felt drawn to the film industry and more specifically the recording side of t...
