Arnie Lazarus invented what is largely regarded as the first three dimensional transducer for musical instruments in 1969. That same year he established a company that echoed the name of...
Mary Luehrsen is a music advocate dedicated to music education and promoting support for music education. As Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations for NAMM and a former mus...
Steve Lynn began working with his brother in 1974, finishing flutes for the Gemeinhart Company in Elkhart, Indiana. Three years later he joined the Armstrong Company as an experienced fi...
Mari Mach spent nearly 40 years in the music industry in and around Elkhart, Indiana. She began her career in the sales department working for C. G. Conn for four years before being offer...
Masashi Miyazawa formed the Miyazawa Flutes Company in 1969. Mr. Miyazawa founded the company with a dream to create a better instrument. With his background in the design and manufacture...
Larry Moody began his career in the music industry as a retailer working for Ziggy Coyle in Ohio. The store was owned by Ziggy, a past president of the NAMM Board of Directors, and Russel...
John Morgan was a band instrument sales rep who knew how to talk to school band directors. After all, he had been a director for years and once he entered the music products industry, it...
Dave Mount remembers working with his grandfather, Kurt Gemeinhardt, and learning first hand several important elements of the business including customer service and a focus on quality. ...
Chieko Nakamura is the CEO for Jujiya Musical Instrument Company in Ginza, Tokyo. The harp and flute retailer is also known by the shorter name Ginza Jujiya. The company was established i...
Qian Ni is a classically trained flutist and the President of the Eastman Music Company, making him one of the passionate music makers within our industry! His devotion to customer servi...
Hiroaki Oh-oka sat on a thin mat in front of a leg-less table in his traditional Japanese home where he outlined the history of the bamboo flutes his five- man company produced. The compa...
Rachel Ombredane is a captivating performer and classically trained musician who forms one half of RoSaWay, a stylish and forward-thinking electro-pop duo from Paris, France. Known for th...
Anthony Ortega was a mainstay on the west coast jazz scene beginning in the 1940s. Growing up in Watts, Anthony (known as Tony) went to school with and was exposed to many of the era's Lo...
Charles Owens has always believed in the importance of music education; after all, his own career began while attending the University of San Diego. As a result, Charles kept returning to...
Rob Palmer served as president of UMI (United Musical Instruments) in the final years of the company before the brands it manufactured were sold to other companies. UMI played an importan...
Larry Redhouse grew up in a house with six siblings who were all, like their mother, very musical. The family formed a musical act, the Redhouse Band, in the late 60s. The band played a l...
Liane Rockley gained a degree in flute performance in New York before moving to Denver, where she taught music at a local music store. The storeowner, Bob Rockley, who would become her fa...
Mutter Slater played harmonica, flute and sang as a member of the influential British band Stackridge beginning in 1970s. Although often categorized as a progressive rock band, their soun...
Tony Spano began repairing instruments in high school and was perfect for the job as a retail store repairmen, which he started doing in Ohio after the army in 1957. He later worked with...
David Straubinger started a small business in 1969 to repair and rebuild woodwind instruments. He determined early on that one area of consistent concern was they way flute pads were repl...
Kent Stutzman was hired by Gemeinhart in the 1970s and has remained with the flute builder for over 35 years! During his career, Kent has worked in several positions on the line as well ...
Mark Thomas was a noted flute player who toured the world and recorded several albums during his long career. As a product endorser, Mark appeared in several printed ads over the years a...
Steven Wasser grew up in a very musical family, played reed instruments as a child and dreamed of owning his own business. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Steven worked in ...
Ryan West shared many of his memories of traveling abroad with his father, Steve, to understand and appreciate how the business great and diversified including their early distribution of...
Tony Whitt began his career in the industry with the Linton oboe company in Elkhart, Indianan. He later began working for Gemeinhart, which has been where he has been for most of his 52 ...
Paul Wishart, a Scottish-born musician and innovator, was steeped in jazz from a young age, thanks to his father's passion for the genre and his mastery of multiple instruments. By his te...
