Joe Phelps started playing drums in the 7th grade. While in college, as a marketing major, he opened an off campus concert hall, played in bands, and ran a recording studio for the music ...
Dafnis Prieto grew up in a musical neighborhood in Cuba where he quickly fell in love with the drums. During his 2008 NAMM Oral History Interview, Dafnis discussed some of his musical inf...
Ron Raup was among the first commercial members to serve on the NAMM Board. His long career in the industry has been highlighted by his incredible vision and marketing skills for the Make...
Kevin Ray Clark grew up with music in his home and played in a family band at church. He was inspired by the musicians playing at Disney World and pursued the trumpet in his school band p...
Donna Reed wanted to continue to provide music lessons even after retiring from teaching in a traditional school setting. After 30 years as a music education teacher in the public schools...
Al Rinaldi was the first person ever to receive the Steinway Lifetime Achievement Award, which was given to him in 2012. Al never worked for the piano manufacturer nor did he work for an...
Lee Ritenour was exposed to jazz music in Los Angeles as a youth thanks to his parents. He developed a great knowledge of guitar techniques having watched and or worked with many of his ...
Ed Rizzuto was surrounded by music his entire life. As a young boy he started playing trombone, which he continued throughout high school and into his military service in the early 1950s....
Dan Rodowicz was encouraged at an early age to play music. His parents arranged piano lessons, which led to trombone, which was the instrument of his beloved uncle. Dan was influenced by...
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...
John Schauer grew up in Indiana where his father offered him some sage advice; “if you listen, you will know what to say.” The quote stayed with John as he developed a career in the music...
Jay Schreiber is the General Manager for the Band & Orchestral Division of Yamaha Corporation of America. It is a fitting position as the horn player worked for some 12 years as a tra...
Carter Schuld's father purchased an accordion for him when he was just four years old. Thanks to church, Carter took a liking to the organ, which his father noticed and purchased a home ...
William Schultz turned the struggling Fender Musical Instrument Corporation into an industry leader after purchasing the famed guitar company from CBS in 1985. Born in McKeesport, PA on J...
Bobby Shew’s cool jazz trumpet style helped revolutionize jazz in the 1960s through a series of successful recordings and world tours. During those years he developed several ideas that w...
Michael Skinner grew up in jazz and cut his teeth as a musician at Berklee College of Music. He was a band director right after college and designed several music programs including some...
Tim Smith grew up in a very musical family as his father and uncle both wrote and record music. In fact, his uncle, Arthur Smith, wrote two of the most famous instrumentals in modern coun...
Darren Speir often reflects back on the Texas music store his uncle and his father opened. His father was a piano technician and helped build the store's customer list based on his atten...
Colin Steel is the founder of Keyboard Corner and KC's Rock Shop, both located in Melbourne, Australia. Colin began his career in music retail at Brash's Music in 1968 during the great ho...
Robert Street grew up in the piano business. In 1914, Robert’s grandfather, Claude P. Street, opened his first music store in Nashville, Tennessee. Claude was certain that a successful bu...
Tom Sumner grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he not only played guitar in local bands but also worked in area music stores. While attending college Tom worked in music retail as...
Peter Suzuki's career parallels the rise of Yamaha and the highly successful Yamaha Music Schools in Japan and the United States. Mr. Suzuki started with Yamaha in 1962 as a retail keyboa...
Tetsuya Takagi served as Executive Vice President of Yamaha International Corporation (currently Yamaha Corporation of America) and worked for Yamaha Corporation in Japan holding several ...
Wayne Tanabe is a pioneer in the band instrument repair field who has helped create and improve several methods for instrument cleaning using ultrasound and cryogenics. Looking towards wa...
David Thomas is the second tenor for the singing group Take 6. He joined the group only five years after they were formed and soon became an important element in their unique sound. Dur...
Sylvia Tyson wrote songs that a generation sang, and she also recorded songs by other songwriters which helped define the Folk Music revival of the 1960s. In 1962 she wrote “You Were On M...
Ray van Straten began his love of music when his parents bought him a kids piano when he was four years old. He went on to study classical piano performance, as well as jazz arranging wit...
Tony Verderosa was inspired by Bill Bruford's use of electronic percussion units to write new music in real-time. After graduating from the Crane School of Music, Tony began working with ...
John Waltrip began being involved in music as a small child and in fact, became the main pianist for his church as a teenager. He played in the school bands and studied music in college....
Jay Wanamaker found his passion for music as a member of a drum and bugle corps and eventually honed his skills while attending the Crane school of music at SUNY Potsdam University in Pot...
Dave Weckl was proudly inducted into the Modern Drummer Magazine's Hall of Fame in 2000. The award was extra meaningful to Dave given the list of previous winner who inspired his playing ...
Jim Widner was given a very special opportunity to join his grade school’s orchestra, which provided him an instrument to play. His love of music was fostered years later when he became a...