Don Kong is the manager of Music Village in San Jose, California. Don worked for a few other music companies before begging to be hired by the store's founder, Joe Teixeina, in the early...
Doug Lady is one of those guys who will give you the shirt off his back. As the Senior Vice President of Sales for Hal Leonard, he has created a team that echoes his strong and sincere f...
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...
Martin Marris and his wife run Note Craft, a music engraving company that has played a vital role in the access of musical works of every type. Working for publishing companies, Note Cra...
Annekathrin Mascus serves as the Head of Sales for Breitkopf & Härtel, the oldest currently operating music publishing house. The company began in 1719 by Bernhard Breitkopf in Leipzi...
Gene Monnig is the owner of Cadenza Music in St. Paul, Minnesota. The store is an important place for music teachers in and around the Twin Cities as Cadenza keeps close tabs on the meth...
Mary Faith Rhoads Lewis grew up on a farm outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania, where her mother played the piano and encouraged her children to play an instrument. Mary Faith began playin...
Tristann Rieck’s first instrument was the song flute, which was an introduction to the band program in grade school, which she joined the very next year. She later took up the alto horn ...
Ron Rowe served as president of JW Pepper following the tenure of his dear friend Dean Burtch. The two men were not only incredible business partners, they were close personal friends. ...
Michael Sagun, while attending the University of Portland, began working for a couple of local music stores. He worked as a part time shipping clerk at Barker Lynns Sheet Music Service ...
Tony Santorella opened his own music publishing company just north of Boston after learning the trade from the iconic publisher Charles Hansen. Tony was an All State trumpet player who st...
Jeff Schroedl wrote and published a guitar book in his late teens, which led to being asked to join his publisher, Hal Leonard, to be involved with future projects centered around guitar ...
Phyllis Snedeker worked for Stanton's Sheet Music Service since the 1960s and was still at work several days a week in 2016 when she was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program. Wh...
Marcia Stearns is a regular attendee at the annual RPMDA conventions and can often be found volunteering to introduce a speaker or tallying the session surveys. Her passion for the busin...
Joe Teixeira opened a small music store in San Jose, California in 1964. As the fiftieth anniversary approached in 2013, Joe sat down for his NAMM Oral History interview to begin documen...
Rick Valentine is the founder and president of Valentine’s House of Music, a retail store dedicated to piano sheet music and method books. Over his career, Rick developed not only a true...
Mary Vandenberg started at Hal Leonard as the sole licensing administrator in the Milwaukee office and eventually became the Vice President of Business Affairs. In that role she dealt wi...
Nancy Vernon and her husband, Gene Monnig, own and operate Cadenza Music in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nancy is very active with the music teachers in and around the area and works hard to bui...
Gail Warnaar started a double reed camp for high school band students in the Michigan area, which lead to her involvement with the music products industry. In 1981 Gail formed the Double...
Elliott Wessel likes to point out the fact that he has had five different positions at Schmitt Music at five different times during his career. He also conveys, as many others have, that ...
Fred Zeagler was always in band growing up and aspired to be the greatest Band Director of all time. He comes from a very musical family and grew up with his brother Grayson in the music ...
