Michael Sweeney has been heavily involved in all aspects of music education over his career in the music industry. Originally a public school band director, he’s been a full-time employe...
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...
Elaine Taylor began working on the bench at Selmer in Elkhart in 1975, where she covered cases. Over the years she has worked in the cork and padding department for saxophones, also in t...
Bryce Taylor was one of the best known and respected bandmasters in the state of Texas. His school bands performed at the Midwest Band Clinic, TMEA, and the Texas Bandmaster’s Association...
Terry Taylor has worked in the music industry his entire career. After his service in the Marine Corp, Terry began working for CG Conn in the factory in Elkhart, Indiana. He later worke...
Cynthia Templeton has worked for one and only one company in the music industry. She was hired by Selmer in Elkhart, Indiana in the early 1970s and remained with the company for her enti...
Carl Thacker was a teenager when he began repairing band instruments. In fact he was a Charter Member of NAPBIRT and attended the first annual convention before he was 20 years old. Aft...
Russell Thomas was a band director for over 34 years. During his teaching years he often felt frustrated that simple repairs would take weeks and often delay concerts or rehearsals. A l...
Johnny Thompson had the distinction of being the very first music student of a young steel guitar player named Ernie ball. Back in the early 1950s, before he established a string company,...
Norm Thompson began his career in the music products industry as a salesman for retailers in Memphis during the 1950s. He worked his way up to a position of buyer for the store O. K. Hauc...
Tommy Tompkins began working for CG Conn in Elkhart, Indiana right after high school. He worked in a variety of positions within the company before his training and certification on wast...
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...
John Trakas was hired by Ziggy Coyle to serve in the store's accounting department. John grew in the company over the years as did the store, which had multiple locations throughout the ...
Jerry Trestman grew up in a musical home, in fact his older brother played saxophone for several of the big bands during the swing era. Jerry served in the Korean War and was stationed i...
Barry Trobaugh gives great credit to his childhood music teachers and band directors for the passion and love he has for being a music educator. After receiving his bachelors degree from ...
Agness Tsao earned her college degree in banking and always had a love of music, singing in choirs from a young age. After college, she began working for KHS Musical Instruments, which ha...
Lloyd Turner happily landed his first teaching job right out of college as band director for Madison Central High School in Jackson, Mississippi in 1966. The job cemented in Lloyd’s mind ...
Mindi Turner is the Accounting & Office Manager at Tatum Music in Longview, Texas. She is a passion-driven music maker who landed her dream job. She played clarinet all throughout sch...
Jan Ulrich’s brother Kelly Patterson began working at H&H Music Services in 1987 as an intern. Jan was hired just three years later in the service department. She works closely with h...
Charles Urban knows horns! As the former president of American Plating, he has worked with the top brass instrument makers to perfect the art of plating instruments. Chuck is also very pr...
Pete Valentino noticed that band instrument repairmen often had a difficult task in replacing worn pads on flutes and saxophones. He had burned his hands on many occasions and thought tha...
Bernard Van Doren is the grandson of the founder of Vandoren Paris, the world famous reed maker. His grandfather, Eugene, formed the company in 1905 based on his technique of making high ...
Dennis Vaughn began working in the Selmer factory in Elkhart, Indiana in the early 1970s and stayed on when the company merged with Conn. His first bench job was for Armstrong Flutes bef...
Dan Vedda grew up playing music. As an arranger and trumpeter he gained a respected reputation in the Westlake area of Ohio. After working for a music retailer in town he was encouraged b...
Nancy Vernon and her husband, Gene Monnig, own and operate Cadenza Music in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nancy is very active with the music teachers in and around the area and works hard to bui...
Jürgen Voigt comes from a long tradition of musical instrument makers in the region of Markneukirchen starting as early as 1756. His grandfather and great-grandfather were bow makers and ...
Harry Voshell started playing the saxophone in the fourth grade and fell in love! His interest in music grew over the years as he served in the United States Navy, where he played in sev...
Tedd Waggoner began his career in the music industry in 1969 and soon joined the Selmer team. Tedd worked in most of the positions for the company but found his greatest satisfaction whe...
Dick Waldron came to music in a most unusual way. His father was a house painter who completed a job only to find out the house owner did not have enough money to pay so he offered a cor...
Robin Walenta attended the University of Northern Iowa and Middle Tennessee State University before joining West Music in 1982. She was named president/CEO of the company in 2007. Robin w...
Paula Walker began working in the music industry right out of high school for the Gemeinhart flute company in Elkhart, Indiana. In the early years she worked primarily on student instrum...
Bill Wallin is the instrument repair technician at Chafin Musiccenter in Lake Worth, Florida. Bill began working for the company alongside the store's founder, Paul Chafin. While Paul's...
