Philipp Alexander is proud of his musical past. His family formed Musik-Alexander in Mainz, Germany in 1782. They began as brass instrument makers and later opened a music store while con...
Trevor Austin has encouraged and assisted countless young musicians for over half a century as the director of the Rosehill Instrument stores in England. His passion for playing goes back...
Angelo Battellini proudly managed the Martin Band Instrument factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he worked for 51 years. He was born the son of a brick layer in Italy, a trade he learne...
Nat Clark worked for the York Band Instrument Company for over 40 years! He was hired in New York in 1957 because his older brother was working for Carl Fischer, which owned York at the ...
William Cordier remembered piling in the family car for a road trip to their favorite lake northwest of their home in Ohio. Each and every trip included a detour into Elkhart, Indiana wh...
Pete Cumming began playing a King trombone as a student, never dreaming he would one day work for the company. Growing up outside of Cleveland, Ohio, not far from the King factory, Pete ...
Steve Dillon has a great appreciation and knowledge of vintage band and orchestra instruments. The first musician in the Dillon family can be documented back to the 1700s, thus the store’...
Ronnie Drumm had a full and fulfilling life in music! As a child he picked up the trumpet, which he played during his time as a big band leader, musical director and educator. Ronnie work...
Martin Elneff is owner of i.K. Gottfried, a music store specializing in sales, production and repair of woodwind instruments since 1796. As a teenager Martin started in retail at Marno Sø...
John Foley grew up in Elkhart, Indiana and began working in the Selmer factory before graduating high school. He stayed on with the company, working in the Bach department with a focus o...
Jacques Gaudet was president of the famous French brass instruments production company, Antoine Courtois. Since 1789, the name Courtois has been synonymous with fine brass instruments. In...
Tom Getzen is president of the horn company his father established in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. The Getzen Company is world renowned for the hand-made products such as trumpets and trombones an...
Don Getzen sure knew the history of the band instruments made in the mid-west! Don’s father was the plant manager for the Holton Company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, his oldest uncle was the pl...
Mark Gifford was a band instrument repairman before he joined the King Band Instrument Company, now known as Conn-Selmer. The factory, located outside of Cleveland, Ohio produces a long ...
Rocky Giglio was a pivotal leader in the development and marketing of the jj Babbitt mouthpieces product line. For years, he diligently listened to feedback from customers and professiona...
Sam Hart’s father was a preacher who sang with his siblings as the Hart Brothers. Sam grew up surrounded by music and was encouraged to join the school band in the sixth grade. In 1975, a...
Kent Hocker earned a music degree in performance at Indiana University before he began working in the music industry. He joined the Selmer Company of Elkhart in 1977 as a trumpet tester....
Carol Holtz was hired by the Martin Band Instrument Company in Elkhart during World War II. She has many fond memories of working for the company and the family feeling it had. Speaking...
Alex Hsieh is the CEO of P.Mauriat Paris, a brass instrument maker in Taiwan that specializes in saxophones, trumpets and accessories. Their saxophone line of instruments are inspired by...
Merle Johnson was a past president of the famous EK Blessing Company in Elkhart, Indiana. Emil Karl Blessing opened a small brasswind valve company in 1906 and soon expanded his products ...
Ziggy Kanstul knew more about brass instruments than most people. As an important part of the manufacturing end of the FE Olds Company, Ziggy became an expert on model designs, the specif...
Dieter Kühnl is the president of Kuhnl & Hoyer. The brass instrument company (name a horn and chances are they have made it) began after World War II in the small town of Markterlbach...
Josef Lausman proudly followed in his family’s footsteps. In the small German village of Nauheim (near Frankfurt) he made mouthpieces, primarily for trumpets and trombones for many years ...
Denny Lawson began learning and playing instrumental music while in college. He soon found he had a great interest in playing music and switched his major to music education. While he w...
Karl Leong participated in the International Coalition during the NAMM Show beginning in 2012 to discuss collaborative efforts in creating more active music makers. As CEO of KHS, Karl h...
Bob Malone is one of the leading experts in band and orchestra instruments in the United States. He works as Director of the Ateliers in Los Angeles for Yamaha Corporation of America. Bob...
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...
Gerhard Meinl represents the 7th generation in a family of brass instrument makers. After integrating the East German, formerly state-owned, B&S GmbH in Markneukirchen in 1991 with Me...
Brad Milliken began working in the music industry with the Vincent Bach Company and stayed with the company when it merged with Selmer and again with Conn. Brad’s positions within the fa...
Jerry Myers is a bell maker for the Conn-Selmer Company in Elkhart, Indiana. Like so many of his co-workers within the factory, Jerry was trained on the job by those who came before him ...
Flip Oakes is the designer of the Wild Thing series of trumpets and cornets. Although Flip is a master of many musical instruments including the clarinet and saxophone (for which he was w...
Dale Olson attended the University of North Texas back in the 1950s when the music program and the trumpet degree, which he earned, was just developing. Dale is proud of the programs at ...
