Bob Sowell had a long run as a Baldwin employee, beginning in 1969 in the Greenwood, Mississippi, factory and running until 2010 in Trumann, Arkansas, when the Gibson Guitar Company owned...
Kristen Spath treasures her many fond memories of making music with her father, a talented clarinetist in several big bands. Her passion for the piano was deeply influenced by the rich ta...
Darren Speir often reflects back on the Texas music store his uncle and his father opened. His father was a piano technician and helped build the store's customer list based on his atten...
Michael Spreeman is the creator of Ravenscroft Pianos and founder of Spreeman Piano Innovations, LLC. Experience includes: 35 years as a concert technician, rebuilder, service technician,...
Ray Stacy began working for the O.S. Kelly Company in 1978 and has a true sense of pride in the work they do in creating piano plates. Located in Springfield, Ohio, the foundry was establ...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Jess Stacy was a very early jazz pianist, starting his care...
Jason Stanfield has always enjoyed finding new and funny sounds, which means he really enjoyed the synthesizer developments of the 1990s! He worked for Mississippi Music in Hattiesburg, M...
Colin Steel is the founder of Keyboard Corner and KC's Rock Shop, both located in Melbourne, Australia. Colin began his career in music retail at Brash's Music in 1968 during the great ho...
Burkhard Stein grew up in a music retail family, which focused on selling pianos in Marburg, Germany. After school he wanted to learn about the manufacturing of pianos and began working f...
Harry Steinway is the great-great-grandson and namesake of Steinway & Sons Piano Company’s founder, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. Harry has a deep understanding of his ancestors’ contr...
Henry Z. Steinway was quite articulate when speaking about the incredible history of the Steinway and Sons Piano Company. One could say that he lived all elements of being a Steinway as t...
Bruce Stevens has served as President of Steinway and Sons longer than any non-family member in the company’s more than 150 year history. Bruce has presided over several important program...
Wendel Stoltz was only a year old when his father, a big band musician, opened a music store in Memphis. The year was 1949. Wendel’s father, Colie, continued to perform at night for man...
David Strait is one of two sons of original Strait Music Company owner and founder, Dan Strait. During his interview David talked about growing up working with their father in a true fami...
Robert Strait is proud of the music retail traditions that his father developed when their family owned store was first established back in 1967. Since that time, his father, Dan, along w...
Robert Street grew up in the piano business. In 1914, Robert’s grandfather, Claude P. Street, opened his first music store in Nashville, Tennessee. Claude was certain that a successful bu...
Basilios Strmec grew up in Vienna and was exposed to piano music at an early age. While learning many different languages, he studied business in college and went to work for Xerox. Aft...
Fred Sturm takes great pride in speaking about the many developments he has witnessed within the Piano Technician's Guild since he first became a member. The creation and implementation o...
Peter Sullivan grew up in a musical home with both his mother and father playing piano. Peter played piano, ukulele, as well as double bass as a youngster and became passionate about play...
Scott Summerhays was the President of the company his parents established in Salt Lake City back in 1936. Scott and his brother Briant worked together to grow the family business and even...
This audio only interview was conducted for a radio program by Dan Del Fiorentino and donated to the NAMM Oral History program: Ralph Sutton learned the traditional stride piano styles of...
Peter Suzuki's career parallels the rise of Yamaha and the highly successful Yamaha Music Schools in Japan and the United States. Mr. Suzuki started with Yamaha in 1962 as a retail keyboa...
Millie Swanson was known as “The Sweetheart of Wurlitzer.” She joined the company in 1931 as an office clerk while still in high school. Over the years, as Wurlitzer grew into the largest...
Wilton Syckes was thought to have sold more pianos than any other salesman. A veteran of the industry, Wilton was also a former president of the National Piano Traveler’s Association. The...
Chris Syllaba grew up in Washington D.C. and found music throughout the city during his childhood years. He soon found a position within Jordan Kitt’s Music store in 1984 and rose throug...
David Tarpley remembered crawling around in the ceiling of his current church as a child, hauling the wires for the Allen Organ his father and uncle were installing. As a member of the Ta...
Bill Tarpley remembered the stories his father used to tell him about the early days of the family music retail store in west Texas. Times were hard during the era of the dust bowls and d...
Buzz Tarpley grew up in the music business. His grandmother was selling pianos as early as 1917 in West Texas. The Tarpley family officially opened a music store in 1927 in Pampa, Texas. ...
John Tarpley likes to echo the message his great-grandmother lived by when she established the family business over 100 years ago: the customer is most important. Since taking over the bu...
Fritz Tasch was born in Kecskemét, Hungary and apprenticed in a violin making school in Mittenwald, Germany. He learned the trade of first building violins, violas, cellos and other histo...
Billy Taylor was first and foremost a jazz pianist. This fact might surprise some people who knew Billy best for one of a number of other careers he enjoyed in music, including teaching, ...
Don Teach is the owner of Shreveport Music store, which was once run by his father. While his father guided the store it was mainly a Hammond dealer and became one of the first to offer Y...
