Richard Abreau played music in school as a kid but got away from it during most of his professional career. Then in 2001, upon his retirement, Richard returned to music! Encouraged by a...
Lee Anderton’s grandfather started a small music store that Lee now runs, Anderton Music in Guildford, England. During Lee’s early years in the business, he worked to make the Internet an...
Ben Ash began working for his family’s store before he can remember. He is the fourth generation of Ash family members to work in the company that was formed by his great-grandfather, Sa...
Clay Bailey recalls his father’s early career included producing local country music ho-downs while establishing a radio repair shop, which turned into an appliance store called the Radio...
Peter Bartkus grew up in Rockford, Illinois and was proud to establish a music shop there in the early 1950s. Tru Tone Music became a hub for musicians and was known throughout the area f...
Fred Bernardo was repairing and teaching guitar in his local music store when the idea came to him to open his own shop. In 1972, with one guitar and a set of strings he was given as a pr...
Joseph Blumenthal had his sights on being a schoolteacher during his college days when he began to focus on working in retail. He worked at Sears and later at the Good Will Store in New E...
Craig Bosco is a musician and manager of Music Village, a retail store in San Jose, California. Craig's passion for music began at an early age and over the years he has become a professi...
Fred Bramante formed the music retail store Daddy’s Junky Music on the East Coast and went on to play a vital role on the NAMM Board during a dynamic period in the association’s history. ...
Pamela Cole played trombone in school and learned firsthand the importance of supportive people in the formative years of a young musician. After graduating from Belmont College in Nashvi...
Rich Covas owned Modern Music store's three locations for thirteen years beginning in 1966. The locations covered band and orchestra instruments as well as guitar, keyboards, and drums. T...
Tracy Dean is a well-known and well-regarded independent rep based in the St. Louis area. He began his career in the industry at St. Louis Music where he began as a telephone salesman. ...
Anita DeBlasio manages the Union Ave. location of Music Village in San Jose, California. The store was established by Joe Teixeina in 1964 to serve the musicians and to foster music in t...
Lew DiTommaso was a key member in Daddy’s Junky Music for many years and built a reputation on honest and passion driven hard work. That passion for Lew started when he first heard the B...
Peter Dods was an investment banker on Wall Street on September 11, 2001, which in his words, “uprooted my life and caused me to rethink what I wanted to do.” Having been a music maker h...
Benny Englund was a rock and roll singer as a teen when he fell in love with the music industry! He toured with groups as a roadie and sound engineer. He also worked for a time for a fe...
Elizabeth Fernando grew up in her parent’s retail music store. By the age of ten she ordered special strings customers were asking for that her parents did not carry and sold them within...
Jesus "Jet" Fernando opened a small music retail store with his wife, Elizabeth, in their native Philippines. Elizabeth grew up in her parent's store across town and knew the business sid...
Paul Finke played drums since he was just a kid and gravitated towards the music business in 1985 when he was hired at Willis Music. At the time the company had eight locations and workin...
Sarah Glew began her career in the music industry by selling records in a small store just south of San Francisco in Pacifica, California. Over time she added musical instruments and fou...
Joseph Gomes is a partner with his brother in the music company their father purchased in 1953. BX Furtado & Son opened in 1865 in India, having a small part of their store dedicated...
Tom Haggerty grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota where he learned to play the guitar. He gigged for many years on the road, which at one point took him to Nashville where he wrote...
Richard Harrison owned and operated several music retail stores in the United Kingdom including well-known stores on Denmark Street. The street in London is often called the English Tin P...
Ziggy Haspod joined his brother-in-law in running a small music store before working for The Music Stand in Tucson, Arizona. It was at that store where Ziggy met with many traveling sale...
Brenda Hebert remembers driving to the music wholesaler who represented the small store her husband formed, Cosmo Music. She was several months pregnant with her son, Mark, and was given ...
Art Hedley and his brother, Kevin, caught the music bug at the time of the British Invasion of the 1960s. They both played in bands and enjoyed witnessing the role music made in bringing...
Kevin Hedley proudly recalled the inspiration behind the name of his store, Uncle Ike's Music, which he opened with his brother, Art, in Iowa. Both were encouraged in music and in busines...
Michael Houser is the Chief Executive Officer for Cascio Interstate Music, which serves both as a brick and mortar store in New Berlin, Wisconsin as well as an internet store.
Greg Howren is the past president of his family's music store in Charlotte, North Carolina. Greg followed in his father's footsteps and continued to build the music store, which focuses ...
Dennis Howren is the president of the Howren Music Store in Charlotte, North Carolina. The store was founded by his father and was run by his two older brothers before Dennis took over a...
Kevin Jarvis began working for Gelb Music in Redwood City, California in 1966 as a guitar teacher. The store was established in 1939 by Sydney Gelb, who was still running the store when ...
Gene Joly is a well respected leader within the industry who has mentored many young employees who have developed within their own careers as well as helping grow the industry! After per...
