Patrick Kelly was the youngest of eight children raised in Western Scotland. His sisters played piano and he had an interest in playing the guitar. His passion led him to pursue a dream o...
Rusty Kephart is the president of the music company his parents established as a small music store in Iowa. Rusty grew up in the store and developed his own passion for music, as a liste...
Wendy Kephart remembers her father bringing her to Kephart’s Music Center when she was a young girl. While she did study music, she recalled it was because her father was a working music...
Darrell Kersten served in the National Guard for over 20 years. After his time in the service, he joined the team at Groth Music in Bloomington, Minnesota. After working on the road and c...
Jim Kincaid has fond memories of his father singing and playing his guitar. Jim’s father was the folk singer and publisher, Bradley Kincaid, who helped pioneer folk music on the radio in ...
Arthur Knopp is the founder of the music retail shop in Germany that carries his name (Musihaus Arthur Knopp in Saarbrucken). His passion for the industry has not only made his own store ...
Irena Komatar was the founder and president of the Lastra Company, located in the country of Slovenia. What started out as a small music retail store quickly grew into both retailing and ...
Michael Kubera grew up in the music store his father established in Buffalo, New York. Kubera Music was a full line store that specialized in the big name brands as well as the hard to f...
Art Kubera began taking accordion lessons when he was eight years old growing up in Buffalo, New York. His love of music continued to develop and within a few years he was playing in sch...
Don Langlie had a wonderful experience for ten years as a band director, mostly in North Dakota, which he enjoyed very much. When he applied for a job at Popplers Music in Grand Forks, D...
Larry Leberte was proud of his family’s history in music retail. Larry’s grandfather opened a small music retail shop just after the Great Depression hit the United States in the early 19...
Frank Lee’s parents established Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong to bring quality musical instruments to their customers. As President of the company, Frank has focused on those origin...
Kenny Lee began playing music in grade school and has been passionate about it ever since those early years. When he heard from a friend about a job at Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong...
Betty Lee co-founded Tom Lee Music in Hong Kong with her husband in the early 1950s. In the beginning, Thomas Lee kept his full time work as an English secretary at a textile company whi...
Tom Lee is one of the most famous names in the Asian market of music retail. With Tom Lee Music stores all around Hong Kong and parts of China, his name has been synonymous with music si...
Henry Lee is the youngest son of Tom, the founder of the successful stores in Hong Kong and Canada. Henry interned the business after college and took over the Canadian operation while hi...
John Lee is the eldest son of Tom and Betty Lee, the founders of a chain of music retail stores in Hong Kong and Canada. During John’s first NAMM interview, he spoke of the company’s expa...
Paul Leithold is the fourth generation to run the Leithold Music store, along with his sister Abbie. The La Crosse, Wisconsin-based store was established in 1888 as a piano store and rep...
Roger Leithold recalled moving into the historic building where Leithold Music is located on Fourth Street in La Crosse, Wisconsin during his NAMM Oral History interview. The building was...
Abbie Leithold-Gerzema is the co-owner of Leithold Music in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Abbie and her brother also share management duties in the store that their great-grandfather established ...
Alan Levin is the eldest child of Chuck and Margie Levin, the founders of Washington Music Center, which began as Chuck Levin’s Music Center. Alan was a child when the 1968 Washington DC ...
Marge Levin was the secret behind the great success of Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Maryland, a fact Mr. Levin was proud to admit. Marge was born in Washington DC and met Chuc...
Richard Loberg worked for the Schmitt Music store for nearly his entire working career. The company was formed in 1896 in Minneapolis, largely as a piano store. Over the years the company...
Jack Long co-founded the Long & McQuade music stores in Canada beginning in 1956. At the time, there were few supplier/dealer relations between Canada and the United States. Establish...
Glenn MacRae had an exciting musical career as the saxophonist and singer in a Canadian formed rock band that lived and recorded in England for two years in the mid 1960s. That exciting ...
Danny Marquez began playing drums in his father's church from the age of four! One day as a teenager he walked into Chafin Musiccenter in Lake Worth, Florida for a set of sticks. While ...
Edward Marsh, like many jazz pianists, was greatly influenced by the raw power and brilliant ideas of Art Tatum and other musical innovators. Ed took hold of jazz and blended it with his ...
Dan Marshall’s father opened Marshall Music Center in Lansing, Michigan, in 1948, right after returning from World War II. The store soon became a leader in quality instruments and servi...
Cheryl Masters retired from Barratt’s Music in July 2024 after 50 years of service! Her remarkable career in the Launceston, Tasmania store spanned three generations of the Barratt family...
Jimmy Mays performed rock and country music for over 30 years. Along the way he kept his day job, working at Bill Higgins Music from nearly the beginning. Some 40 years later Jimmy stands...
Geoff McCann’s grandfather, James Robert McCann, established McCann’s Music in Hobart, Tasmania back in 1881. In 1935, under the supervision of Bernard McCann (Geoff’s father), the store ...
Ellen McDonald is a passionate music retailer who has strived to create programs and events that encourage her community to take part in active music-making. Hartland Music, located in Ha...
