Pete Sides has a great passion for the music industry; in fact it is in his blood. On his mother’s side a piano tuner can be traced back to the Mayflower and on his father’s side, his gra...
Jim Norris grew up in music. He played a trumpet in grade school and continued playing throughout high school. He later formed a rock and roll band named Sea Dog that gained a good foll...
Aidan McCullough grew up in the music business. His grandfather was a piano tuner who established a small store in Ireland that grew over the years. The store expanded in 1967 when Aida...
Alois Mayer formed his own brass instrument company in 1988 with the hope of bringing high quality hand-made musical instruments to the finest orchestras in the world. In a very short tim...
Chris Bristol was a music retailer in Southern California when a salesman came in one day to show him some gear from a new company called Roland. Chris took to the products right away. Wi...
Helga Kasimoff and her husband established the Bluthner piano dealership in Pasadena, California in 1963. Since that time many Blüthner grand pianos have been restored in their workshop s...
Danny Rocks was associated with music publishers for many years. He served at Alfred Publishing as vice president and was a large part of the RPMDA. By all who knew him, he was the RPMDA ...
Bob Popyk knows enough about the music industry to write about it! Bob had several music retail stores before selling them in 1979 to form a sales and marketing strategies business. Since...
Vincent McBryde picked up the saxophone at the age of 5 and played in bands throughout high school and into college, where he studied music with the hopes of becoming a band director. Aft...
Jack Long co-founded the Long & McQuade music stores in Canada beginning in 1956. At the time, there were few supplier/dealer relations between Canada and the United States. Establish...
Robert Dove joined Steinway & Sons at a time of global change and development. He helped establish the Far East division of the piano company and for many years assisted with the co...
Skip Daynes is proud of his heritage and the fact that he operates the oldest family- owned music store in the United States. Daynes Music in Salt Lake was also one of the first Steinway ...
Willy Vassilopoulos joined the Ovation Guitar Company in New Hartford Connecticut to follow his love of woodworking. He soon took part in the production of the instrument, which was orig...
Michael Tobias is well known as a gifted and knowledgeable guitar luthier. The Tobias bass, now made by Gibson, has often been praised for its playability and unique sound. Mike is also a...
Jeff Rona played a critical role in the coming together of the minds and companies that would agree on the MIDI specs back in the 1980s. The meetings took place at NAMM shows over several...
Richard Hoover is the founder of Santa Cruz Guitars and a noted luthier known for his methods that demonstrate traditional guitar building is possible even in the modern era of technology...
Lorin Hollander is a world-renowned concert pianist with a continuously acclaimed 50-year international career that began with a Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 11. Lorin was an infant ...
Jack Costanzo, also known as Mr. Bongo, nearly single-handedly (sorry for the pun) brought the bongo to enormous popularity in the 1950s. Jack recorded top selling albums, appeared on TV ...
Karl Bruhn was the Bob Hope of the music industry, having received so many awards and accolades – an award should have been given for the most awards received. Karl gained his reputation ...
Craig Anderton was among a very small group of engineers at the dawn of the synthesizer revolution during the 1970s that was in the position to report, educate and compose music based on ...
Eddie Toporek began as an innovative musical wholesaler when he set out to create a new type of distribution business, with a heavy influence on the latest technology. As a result Eddie c...
Louise Leed met her future husband while performing as a singer in her native South Africa. After having their four children, her British husband, David, suggested the family move back to...
David Leed was born in the United Kingdom where he was hired by Boosey & Hawkes, which sent him to South Africa. While there, David became the General Manager for the Hammond Organ Co...
Robert J. Jones traveled on a tour bus with his father and sang gospel music together for many years as the Song Fellows. They recorded for Homeland Records in Nashville and performed aro...
David Teegarden, the drummer for the Silver Bullet Band and noted recording engineer, was among the first musicians to be interviewed for the NAMM Resource Center collection. With a growi...
Billy Taylor was first and foremost a jazz pianist. This fact might surprise some people who knew Billy best for one of a number of other careers he enjoyed in music, including teaching, ...
Dave Pike made an indelible mark on jazz vibraphones! As a percussive based player, Dave wanted to play with both rhythm and pitch and to explore melodies within Bebop riffs. He played wi...
Curtis Pearson served proudly during World War II and, upon returning to the United States, was told of a sales job at the Poole Music Company. After several successful years and getting ...
Günter Körner began designing musical instruments at an early age growing up in Germany and, after gaining an engineering degree in college, he spent his entire career making instruments....
Norman Goldberg studied music from an early age and became a band director early in his life. Seeing the needs of music educators, Norman opened his own store called Baton Music in 1948, ...