Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum attended college together and soon developed a few clever ways of combining their engineering training with their passion for music. They began creating sound ...
Bart Wascom was the electrical engineer who sought to improve the pro-audio speakers by improving the distribution of sound. After several tests, he concluded that large wooden cabinets c...
Ted Veneman grew up in his father’s music store. As early as 1975, Ted was etching out a mail order catalog under the name “Music Emporium,” which was much earlier than most mail order ca...
Koob Veneman’s father started the first Veneman’s Music Store in Holland, an idea copied by Koob in Maryland in 1960. Koob, like his father, was a luthier who designed his own instruments...
Manuel Velazquez was one of the greatest guitar luthiers of the last one hundred years. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1917 and handcrafted his first classical guitar when he was still a t...
Mark Vail has preserved some of the music products industry’s greatest history as author and researcher of a series of publications. In 1993, BackBeat Books published Mark’s landmark book...
Matt Umanov opened his first guitar shop in 1963, following his dream to have a life in music. Over the years, Matt has become one of the world’s leading experts on guitars, which is ofte...
Rick Turner was well known for his innovative handcrafted guitars and for pioneering the resurgence of American luthiers in the 1960s and 70s. With an ear for quality sound and an eye for...
Helen Tozzi was hired to set up the accounting for a new music store that was opening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Progressive Music opened in 1947 and Helen was there on opening day. She...
Eddie Tishkoff and his brother Jerry owned the famous Hollywood Piano Company and Hollywood Piano Rental Company located in Southern California, one of the busiest piano rental outfits in...
Jerry Tishkoff and his brother Eddie owned the famous Hollywood Piano Company and Hollywood Piano Rental Company located in Southern California. The stores gained fame for providing instr...
Larry Thomas is the current CEO of Fender Musical Instrument Company. He also served as CEO of Guitar Center during the company’s early growth period. He worked closely with music educat...
Clark Terry enjoyed a long and celebrated career as a trumpeter playing with nearly ever iconic jazz musician of the twentieth century. His tone and style of playing was an influence on s...
David Teeple’s first job in the music industry was working for the large Grinnell Brothers chain in the 1960s, based in Michigan. When he was asked to teach guitar, he had to first learn ...
Bob Taylor enrolled in wood shop while a student in high school and made a guitar for his final grade. The idea of making his own guitars came easy to Bob and he set out to create his own...
Wolfe Taninbaum was a leader in the development of synthetic reeds, although he is best known for his mouthpiece designs. The Taninbaum mouthpiece company was established in 1952 to provi...
Don Talbot recalls working with his father at Coast Wholesalers when he was school age, sweeping up and working in the warehouse. Don’s father was one of the three owners and years later,...
Colleen Summerhays recalled the day in 1940 when she walked into a local music store to inquire about a clerical position. She met the owner, her future husband, Hy Summerhays, who had op...
Briant Summerhays has been a part of the music industry his entire life. His mother and father opened a music store in Utah in the days following World War II. Earlier, his father, Hy, ha...
John Styll formed the Contemporary Christian Music magazine in 1978 as the leading voice in the new era of church music was being established. After selling the publication 20 years later...
George Sturm was asked by the Music Library Association (MLA) to author an essay regarding the music publishing industry in America for the association’s journal. To do so, Mr. Sturm used...
Jim Strouse is the president of Stranton’s Sheet Music in Columbus, Ohio, and a founding member of the Retail Print Music Dealers Association (RPMDA). Over the years the organization has ...
Ned Steinberger is known around the world for his innovative instrument designs. His guitars and basses created without the traditional headstock gained wide popularity in the 1980s rock ...
Anna Sipavich was a real life Rosie the Riveter with ties to the music products industry. She was a factory worker at the Wurlitzer Company in DeKalb, IL, when the Second World War broke ...
Lowell Simpson spent his entire life in music. As a child he played music as well as sang and in fact, continued to sing over the decades even after working as a sales manager for several...
Lieselotte Sievers is the granddaughter of Mr. Breitkopf of the famous Breitkopf & Hartel music publishing company in Wiesbaden, Germany. The historic publisher is known around the wo...
Fredy Shen worked closely with Remo Belli becoming a Vice President in the Remo Corporation. Mr. Shen oversaw the expansion of the company’s manufacturing overseas. The relationships that...
Hugo Schreiber along with his brother and father formed the W. Schreiber Music Company in Germany in 1946. In very difficult post war years, Hugo oversaw the expansion of the market and g...
Joachim Schneider proudly continues in the family tradition of hand crafted instrument making. His great grandfather was a violin builder as was his grandfather. His grandfather and fathe...
Rudy Schlacher has become of the great businessmen of the music products industry, which is incredible considering his humble beginnings. With an idea of detail, customer service and the ...
