Bob Malone is one of the leading experts in band and orchestra instruments in the United States. He works as Director of the Ateliers in Los Angeles for Yamaha Corporation of America. Bob...
Amy Mao teamed with Dr. Paul Shelden in 2004 to create a new line of band instruments. With the growing technology available in China, Amy and Paul set out to produce the finest musical i...
Vincent Marinelli is the founder of Expert Woodwind Service, a music store specializing in hand-selected and expertly fine-tuned professional clarinets and saxophones. A musician himself,...
Jonathan Montel has worked on the bench in the factory at Selmer in Elkhart for over 40 years! He has worked in many positions during his career with a special concentration on oboes, cl...
Walt Ostermeyer had a solution to the complaint of millions of school age music students who came into his music retail store, the wood reed tastes yucky. Walt designed a series of reeds ...
Vito Pascucci was assigned to band instrument repair during World War II for Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band. Although Miller was much older, the world-famous bandleader and Vito becam...
Francesco Passera's journey in music began with a lifelong passion. While his sister pursued guitar and piano performance, Francesco's path led him to business school and a career outside...
Bernice Pelmear began working in the Selmer factory in Elkhart, Indiana in 1973. She was trained by veteran co-workers, a tradition she carried on as a trainer years later. Her work foc...
Bill Price was active in the band instrument business after being involved with other industries and as a result has a very unique and positive perspective on the music industry. Bill wa...
Nick Rail is the president and founder of the retail string of stores in Southern California with his namesake that began in 1986. Nick began his career as a band instrument repairman for...
Jean Francois Rico had an early interest in news photography, but following his grandmother’s passing, Jean began working at the company his grandfather had established, Rico Reeds. The c...
Tim Roethler found his calling during his service in the US Army, where he played saxophone in the army band. Recognizing the importance of instrument repair, Tim honed his skills in wood...
John Rogers provided an in-depth overview of the Paxman Company during his NAMM Oral History interview, which happened to have taken place as the company was celebrating 100 years in busi...
Eric Satterlee founded Meridian Winds in 1984, in Lansing, Michigan. The store specializes in wind instruments and has a very innovative repair shop. In fact, the repair shop is the bir...
Thomas Schreiber, grandson of Wenzel Schreiber, today runs his own repair shop and takes care of the woodwind instruments of several music schools in the region of Frankfurt. After an app...
Gary Shanholt began working on the bench at Selmer in Elkhart on Main Street back in the 1970s. He continued to work for the company after it merged with Conn, becoming Conn-Selmer. Gar...
Paul Shelden was a Professor Emeritus in Music for Brooklyn College and both studied and taught music at Juilliard, beginning on clarinet and saxophone, but branching into electronic musi...
Marvin Snyder became president of Rico Reeds in 1976, after managing the cane plantations, which were used to make the reeds. His father worked with the Lockie family, who owned a chain o...
Dave Surber’s father was a United States Navy musician who worked for the Leblanc Company after he retired from the navy. When Dave was looking for a job his father found one for him in ...
Poul Marno Sørensen inherited Marno Sørensen Music store from his father located for many years in the heart of Copenhagen. Poul remembers how his father worked as a musician in a circus ...
Pooja Talwar's family background is rooted in the musical instrument and accessory industry in India. Her father, Vijay Talwar, began working for her grandfather’s wood-selling business a...
Mark Thomas was a noted flute player who toured the world and recorded several albums during his long career. As a product endorser, Mark appeared in several printed ads over the years a...
Pete Valentino noticed that band instrument repairmen often had a difficult task in replacing worn pads on flutes and saxophones. He had burned his hands on many occasions and thought tha...
Steven Wasser grew up in a very musical family, played reed instruments as a child and dreamed of owning his own business. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Steven worked in ...
Abe Wollam was a close associate of Bud Reglein. Beginning in the 1940s, Abe worked with Bud at the jj Babbitt Mouthpiece Company out of Elkhart, IN. Abe developed strong engineering skil...
Nobunari Yanagisawa is the president of the company his father established just before World War II. The company began as a repair shop, which focused on the saxophone. The factory was ...
