Debra Karlowitch likes to tell people that she started working at C.F. Martin & Company the same week Chris Martin joined full time! At the time of her NAMM Oral History interview in...
Renee Karnes recalls meeting her future mentor when she was just eight years old. Over the years she developed both a love of banjos and a friendship with Henry Lea, who taught her the c...
Rose Karr's father worked for the founder of Cunningham Piano Company as a technician. When Mr. Cunningham passed away, Rose's father approached Mrs. Cunningham about his goals to continu...
Helga Kasimoff and her husband established the Bluthner piano dealership in Pasadena, California in 1963. Since that time many Blüthner grand pianos have been restored in their workshop s...
Judy Kaufman and her husband, John Pedersen, own Amazing Grace Music, a charming and funky (in a good way) music store located in San Anselmo, California. The couple purchased the store i...
Lisa Kaufmann is the Managing Director of the American headquarters of Genelec. The Finnish based company, an innovative loudspeaker and pro audio manufacturer, was founded by Dr. Ilpo Ma...
Carol Kaye can be heard on such landmark recordings as “La Bamba,” the Mission Impossible theme, and scores of hits produced by Phil Spector. She started playing jazz guitar in a big band...
Arlene Keenan, the CEO of Strad-Pad, boasts a rich tapestry of experience woven from her early artistic inclinations and tenure as an elementary educator. With a keen eye honed from child...
Claudia Keith and her husband, Joe, are, together, one of the legendary couples of the print music business in the United States. As owners of the Music Mart in Albuquerque, NM, the Keith...
Paula Keller Smith’s father, Frank, was a woodworker who opened a violin repair shop in 1975. Over the years the shop turned into a stringed instrument store in Kansas. Paula grew up in t...
Irene Kelley was raised in a culturally rich musical home. HXer father was a musician as was her older brother, who played guitar in the Chet Atkins style. Irene learned to play the guita...
Sabine Kemna is sales director at Furore. The publishing house focuses exclusively on offering works by female composers. Sabine Kemna played percussion in a band and worked at music publ...
Lynn Kephart worked with her husband Russ to establish the Iowa-based Kephart Music Centers. Her attention to details was the perfect match for accounting, inventory and payroll in the pr...
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...
Erin Kessler began playing French Horn in school and had a close relationship with her grandmother, who encouraged and inspired her to keep music in her life. Erin’s grandparents establis...
Karrie Keyes grew up with a deep appreciation and understanding of art. She played in both band and orchestra at school. As a teenager in Los Angeles in the early days of the punk rock mo...
Eileen Kilday and her husband worked hard to re-build an old piano bench making company, which they renamed GRK. This project for the Kilday’s began in 1988 with the purchase of the old c...
Ricia King as a child took piano lessons from the mother of future Yamaha Marketing Manager Roger Eaton (fun fact). Ricia has always loved music and because she grew up in her father’s Ka...
Kaki King first heard the Ovation Guitar being played by her father. It was one of his prized instruments and young Kaki was not allowed to play with it without him. He later gave that in...
Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel...
Lorna Kirchner has worked for Selmer, now Conn-Selmer, in Elkhart for over 40 years. She recalls the days before the CNC machines came into the factory, when all of the work was done by ...
Mildred Kirschner was simply known as Millie around the NAMM headquarters office where she was hired in 1946. The Chicago based association was being run by Mr. Mills when a heart conditi...
Linda Kitchen is the daughter of Bill May, the founder of Maton Guitars. Bill established the guitar company in 1946, which has since become an important producer of acoustic and electric...
Kris Kjeldgaard finished her degree with a music major and a minor in business and went job seeking. She was not sure what the direction of her career would take and in fact, looking back...
Sherry Klein grew up outside of New York City during the height of the folk scene. She loved to go to Greenwich Village and has amazing stories of meeting Joni Mitchell and going to Woods...
Betty Kline was getting a little tired of running to town for band accessories when her husband, a music director, needed something for his students. What started out being a large box o...
Penny Kline grew up in the music business as her mother was the founder of Kline Music in Sacramento, California and her father was a band director in area schools. When her father neede...
Lauri Knapton is the founder of Knapton Musik Knotes in Janesville, Wisconsin. The store, which was established in 2000, provides musical instruments, lessons, and a long list of communit...
Kim Koch has fond memories of driving to the family’s music store with her father, Bob Saied, and learning from him about the business side of the company. That inspiration stayed with he...
Debra Kolacny began playing the organ at the age of eight, not knowing a life of music was ahead of her. She joined her junior high school band as a percussionist and in high school focus...
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 ...
Gabriela König is the CEO of König & Meyer, a music manufacturing company for which her grandfather started in the 1930s. He was a tool maker who saw the need for well structured musi...