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...
Paul Decker found his passion for music while learning to play the drums as a child and growing up in his dad’s music store, which he eventually purchased from him. The current location w...
Sharell Del Fiorentino remembers as a little girl pretending the back of her daddy’s car seat was a piano keyboard. As long as she can recall, she has always wanted to be a pianist. When ...
Nan DeStafney served her country as a United States Navy nurse. As she neared retirement, she met navy man Jim DeStafney who had the idea of opening his own music store. The two were marr...
Sandy DeVito began teaching himself guitar when he was 11 years old. He developed and learned how to play by gigging in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area. Sandy performed and ...
Mat Donaldson set out to create an encouraging and exciting lesson program when he opened his own shop, Drum World, in 1990. He opened the store, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the idea...
Maxine Eastman-Jackson met her future husband, Bud, in school when they were 14 years old. The year they married, 1953, they moved to Provo, UT, where Bud worked at Modern Music by day an...
Jimmy Edwards grew up in a musical family. His father was a singer in a rock band and Jimmy began playing drums by the time he was five and later picked up the guitar. After serving in th...
Ida Eleck worked alongside her husband who was a big band musician and band director who had the idea of opening a music store. Ida was thrilled with the idea as it gave her more time to...
Gil Ellman grew up in the big band era, loving the sounds of large orchestras. He was motivated to create as many opportunities for students to make music as possible. He studied band ins...
Joan Ellman and her husband, Gil, established Ellman’s Music Center in 1958. Five years later the store moved to Naperville, Illinois, where it is located today. Joan kept the books and i...
Ron Escheté grew up in and around Houma, Louisiana and, during his NAMM Oral History interview, said, “I was never taught the blues, it was just something all around all the time. Playing...
Tony Falcetti grew up in the music business and developed his passion for music before he can remember. The store his parents started in Springfield, Massachusetts soon became the learni...
Chico Fernandez was born in Toronto and began playing drums at the age of three. He studied piano at eight and later reconnected with the drums, playing in local bands both on stage and i...
Orrin Foslien grew up around music. He started out playing the ukulele, then moved to the banjo and guitar. In high school he began singing in the choir and playing the trombone. Around 1...
Genett Gamber was passionate about music making from a very young age. She recalls her mother arranged to have a piano teacher come to the house and being so excited about learning as mu...
Bob Gand opened a music shop in Deerfield, IL in the early 1960s, which was an influence not only to the community but to his son Gary. Gary went on to open his own successful retail bus...
Mark Gardner, currently a co-owner of Naperville Music near Chicago, was a working musician who needed a day job, so he joined the company in 1985. Learning from a NAMM seminar in the ear...
Eleanor Giacoletti began playing piano as a child. While in college, studying music education, she realized she had a strong passion for providing meaningful lessons to young students. In...
Bob Giacoletti and his wife Eleanor opened a small music school in 1978 that soon took on a line of instruments and accessories to become a full line retail store. The store moved to down...
Mark Gibson is the songwriter and composer who wrote a series of method books for the Australian music market. Back in 1997, Mark established the Encore Music school that combined lesson ...
Roy Good, like many, was first influenced by The Beatles when they came over to the United States as part of the British Invasion. After finishing school, Roy took as many college music c...
Larry Gosch is the owner of Encore Music in Auburn, California, and a long-time recording engineer. In fact, he has been recording bands and singers for nearly as long as he has been pla...
Ann Patrick Green is the founder of Patrick Music School in Fullerton, California and the music teacher who provided training lessons during the NAMM Shows. Her passion has always been c...
Lauren Haas Amanfoh started answering phones at age three and began writing rental contracts at age 10. She grew up in a music store, and went on to receive her degree from Ohio State Uni...
Jon Haber is the president of Alto Music in Middletown, New York. Jon grew up in New York and as a kid would go into Alto Music, which he later bought and expanded to include sales in the...
Kyoko Hara is proud to continue her family tradition of being involved in the music products industry. It all began in 1919 when her grandfather opened a small store. Her father, Ryoji Ok...
Joyce Harkey took regular piano lessons as a child and remembers the day when she was a teenager and her love for music just clicked. She focused on what she could do to use music to help...
Steve Harkey and his father, Don, formed Accent Music in Wilmington, Delaware in 1988. He was joined in the store by his wife, Joyce, after she raised their five children. The couple met ...
Steve Held was involved in music retail beginning when he was a teenager working at the Music Corner in Waterloo, Iowa. He later worked for West Music in Iowa City for well over a decade ...
Scott Houston is known as The Piano Guy thanks to his long running PBS teaching show. During the programs long run Scott has encouraged thousands of people to become music makers, making ...
Wendy Hutchings, along with her sister, Amanda, and daughter, Jody Whyte, are the owners of Hutchings Piano. The store was established by her father back in 1955 when he started selling p...
