William Metcalfe’s father began working for A. P. (Pops) Schuttler in a little music store in Evansville, Indiana, back in 1930. When his father bought the store in a ten-year deal beginn...
Lloyd Meyer was the president of Renner US, the world-renowned provider of piano keyboard actions. His long and productive career began with retail experience in Minnesota at the large Da...
Don Middleton taught music lessons around town before working for Billy Hill at Hill’s Music in 1967. A few months later Mr. Hill announced his retirement and asked Don if he wanted to bu...
Fumio Mieda was hired by the founder of KORG, Tsutomu Katoh, back in 1967. Mieda-san began working on a number of innovations as he hoped to improve the function of electronic organs. The...
Bruce Mihalek has played the piano since he was just eight years old. When he saw the Beatles on TV, Bruce purchased a guitar and formed his own band. The band was the Animals Fax of Lyfe...
Dan Miller has always felt a great sense of pride by providing the music people have worshiped to in the many churches he has performed in over the years. He took piano lessons as a child...
Tom Miller began his career in the piano business at Jordan Kitts Music in Bethesda, Maryland in 1976. His father had purchased a Hammond organ from the same company in 1960, and at age 6...
Bruce Mitchell is a veteran of the Canadian piano and organ industry dating back to 1966 when he was hired as the Hammond Organ sales rep for Canada. Bruce has since been deeply involved ...
Enrico Monaci loved to hear the stories of his uncle, who started the ORLA Company to make parts for accordions. The company expanded over the years and Enrico grew up helping in every e...
Lee Moyer began working for Marty's Music in the late 1960s. When the founder was ready to retire in 1971, Lee and his partner bought the business. They decided to keep the name and to ...
Herbert Newton opened his piano store in 1939, a few years after becoming a piano tuner in the Norfolk area. Back in the beginning of the store, traveling out to nearby farms was key to h...
Les Nicholas was hired as an engineer to assist the famed electronic music inventor Harold Bode. Mr. Bode was given a lab within the Estey Organ Company In Brattleboro, Vermont in 1954. ...
Michael Nugent was the former president of Norlin Corporation. He joined the company when it was still Chicago Musical Instrument Corporation (CMI). M.H. Berlin, CMI’s founder, had purcha...
Richard O’Donnell was vice president of Yamaha Corporation of America at a very historic time in the company’s growth and development, the 1970s. Richard worked on several projects includ...
Sean O'Shea began front pumping the organ during the big boom of home organs in the 1970s. His first gig was for a music store when he was just 14. He grew up in the business and worked f...
Hector Olivera was born in Argentina where he studied organ with his father, a noted church organist. In 1965 Hector studied at Julliard School of Music and soon after that began providin...
Art Olson brought his love for playing music together with his experience as an instrument salesman to form his own store, Artistic Pianos. The store opened in 1999 in Encinitas, Californ...
Mario Ortigara joined his brother’s music store just two years after it opened. Since 1949, Mario worked alongside his brother Ben who started the store to teach and sell accordions. By 1...
Mary Ortigara has always had a deep passion for education and was an English major at Xavier College. After graduating in the late 1950s, she began working in her brother’s music store gi...
Mike Ortigara runs the piano repair and restoration branch of the store his father Ben opened in 1947. Ben opened an accordion store in Chicago which expanded overtime to include pianos, ...
Dick Papalia witnessed a need for organ and piano owners in his neighborhood to have their instruments serviced in the early years of the home organ boom of the 1960s. As a result, in 196...
Gus Pearson began his long and successful career as a sales rep for Wurlitzer back in 1966. He remained with the company until 1981 and has often related his feelings that working for the...
Curtis Pearson served proudly during World War II and, upon returning to the United States, was told of a sales job at the Poole Music Company. After several successful years and getting ...
Gordon Pfund spent his life in the music industry that he loved. At an early age he began working for Werlein For Music in Louisiana and became enamored with the piano and organ market. H...
Ned Phoenix of Townshend, Vermont, a reed organ player and restorer since 1970, is the founder of the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, Vermont. Ned is fond of saying, "This may be the o...
Kevin Prosser took over the piano and organ store his parents established in the mid-1980s. His brother later came into the business, which had several locations throughout Washington Sta...
Antoni Punti and Gabriel teamed up with Keith Mardak in 1972 to form Hal Leonard Spain. The company’s success was fueled by the home organ boom, which was an important milestone of growth...
Don Ravitch pioneered many elements of keyboard retailing as president of Sherman Clay. With an engineering and financial background Don and his partners purchased the music store chain i...
Layton V. Rawlins was the founder of Rawlins Piano Company in Southern California and a veteran of the piano industry. Layton witnessed many of the biggest changes within the piano busine...
Frank Reda began his career in the insurance business, where he honed his skills in customer service and sales—skills that would later prove invaluable in the music industry. In the 1970s...
John Riley grew up playing music and earned a business degree in Boston. He applied for a job at the Wurlitzer retail store and was hired by a man named Bob Fletcher. When Bob moved to ...
