Glenn Howard was the first salesman hired by the Winter Piano Company following World War II. Raised in Marshalltown, Iowa, Glen was the son of a real estate broker who fell on hard times...
Jim Gurley had more stories than just about any one else in the NAMM Oral History collection! He taught guitar in Los Angles area music stores while picking up guitars at Rickenbacker Gu...
Frank Luppino Jr. wrote for Billboard Magazine in the 1940s when the noted publication dedicated a segment to the music products industry and an annual NAMM issue. He oversaw the NAMM iss...
Sam Keeney loved playing music! He had a road organ he hauled to performances nights and on weekends. Starting in the late 1950s, his day job was music retailing. In 1970 he bought a stor...
Don Loeffler combined his love of music with his engineering skills to make several modifications to the percussion instruments he used throughout his career. He made his own vibraphones ...
Danny Henkin was one of the true characters of the music products industry. He began his career with G. Leblanc Corporation and later worked as sales and marketing manager for Gemeinhardt...
Harold Burt was just about 3 years old when a musician from a traveling circus came to his North Carolina town and sold his parents a clarinet for young Harold. His life has been filled w...
Hal David followed in the footsteps of his older brother Mack, who penned several popular songs in the 1930s and 40s. Hal worked hard to learn the craft and spent many years in and around...
Janet Gratsch began working at Willis Music when she was 17 years old in the Choral Department. She remained with the store until she retired and even after her retirement she would be c...
Jack Westheimer was among the first industry leaders interviewed for the NAMM archives back in July 2002. Four years later we had the unique opportunity to complete a second interview wit...
Theo Dollmann was the sales representative for Schott Music, the famed music publisher located in Mainz Germany. He joined the company in 1939 and continued to work for the company past h...
K. Ethel Merker was asked by the Holton Company to create the now popular Merker French horn. Her career has included acclaimed symphonic performances, radio and TV jingle work, and sever...
Masamitsu Yamano’s grandfather opened up a small music stop in the heart of Ginza –the shopping area of Tokyo, Japan. The year was 1892. The retailer, which started out as a small keyboar...
Kitty Wells has been crowned the First Lady of Country Music for her pioneering style and impressive string of hit recordings beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the mid 1960s. For...
George Koregelos made a series of well-respected flutes under his name in the 1970s that was but one of his career highlights in the music products industry. After studying instrument rep...
Wolfgang Förster’s family-owned piano company was formed in 1859 by August Förster, who opened a small piano workshop in "Löbau, Germany. Wolfgang grew up in the family business and recal...
Jack K. Lewis served as President and COO for the Conn Organ Company after years of serving as it's Manager of Marketing Administration, General Sales Manager, Director of Marketing and S...
Jim McEvoy apprenticed as a piano technician in his native Ireland in 1946. The following decade he and his bride moved to San Diego, CA where he worked at a local music store before open...
Eddy Shenker teamed up with Marty Golden in the mid 1970s to form JAM Industries. The distribution company has become one of the largest in Canada and introduced the market to a number of...
Harold Smith ran the Baldwin factory in Greenwood, Mississippi and became president of the famed piano company in the 1980s. In addition to the task of improving production and working co...
Elliot Fine is best known to percussion students for the method book he wrote with Marvin Dahlgren called 4-Way Coordination, which was first published in 1963. Over the years, he has pub...
Bobby Dukoff was a big band saxophone player during the swing era when he looked for ways of improving his own sound. While working for the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Bobby began playing hi...
Ed Cramer was the long time music attorney who played a vital role in ensuring the performance and composing rights of musicians and songwriters. His list of clients reads like a who’s wh...
Lester Wagner began in the woodworking and sanding department of the C.F. Martin & Company before World War II. He moved from the North Street Plant in 1964 to the bigger manufacturin...
Warren Price’s father started a small Canadian music retail store when Warren was just 17 years old. Soon after Warren purchased his first drum kit and discovered he wanted to join his fa...
Jim Marshall was in a full body cast as a 12-year-old boy due to polio. He managed to overcome the incredible odds to not only walk again, but also to become a trained tap dancer. He foun...
George Shorney’s grandfather formed a small music publishing company in 1892 with the goal of serving the church by printing hymnals. The company, Hope Publishing, has done just that and ...
Earl Scruggs was the father of bluegrass and country banjo playing. His style and techniques have been both influential and inspiring for generations of banjo players around the world. Hi...
George Douglas's grandfather opened a small music shop in Canada, which his father managed following his military service during World War II. The small store chugged along over the years...
James “Red” Holloway was an accomplished jazz saxophone player who began his love affair with music while a student of Captain Walter Dyette at DuSable High School in Chicago back in 1942...
Gerhard Keilwerth grew up loving the saxophone and dreaming of building his own line, which of course he did do to international success. The Keilwerth name has been synonymous with innov...
Chuck Barnhouse is the third generation to own and operate the C. L. Barnhouse Publishing Company. His grandfather established the firm in 1886 and over the years the company has commissi...
