Micki Free is a Native American rock guitarist who has a strong passion for music education. He has worked with many tribes to encourage the youth to become active music makers. His own p...
Ruth Charles and her husband Dick opened a music store in Glendale, California, called Charles Music. They enjoyed a long life together as music makers and teachers and retailers of music...
Don Buchla grew up with a passion for music and a passion for engineering. When he combined the two loves, he created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before....
This video is of our annual NAMM Tribute, created in honor of our members and music industry friends who passed away in 2010 and early 2011. This Tribute was shown for the first time at ...
Neil Grover was playing percussion in the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he discovered a bright and unique triangle. When he bought a new triangle he realized it was nothing like that of ...
Ginny Mancini always loved singing! When she had the chance to form a backup group for a 17 year old vocalist coming from Chicago to Los Angles for the first time in the 1940s, Ginny jump...
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. ...
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...
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...
Joe D McBrayer always took great pride in the craftsmanship he put into the servicing and restoration of pianos. In a career that began when he was a kid sweeping up the store, Joe D mana...
John Welch was the president of Sofia Violins, which is an American-made instrument company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. John’s incredible life in music began as a child when he was cl...
Steve Weiss loved playing the drums as a small child, but never imagined in a million years that he would have a career in music, let alone a pioneering and successful career in the music...
Michael Udow served as principal percussionist with the Santa Fe Opera from 1968 until his retirement in 2009. His work with Keiko Abe in Japan as part of Summit Brass, Equilibrium and th...
Bill White played drums since he was a child. So when his son approached him to make a snare drum for him after Bill’s retirement, he agreed. Since that time the snares his son played hav...
Ron Vaughn began his career in the music industry as a drummer who was always looking for new gizmos that could produce the sound he sought. After creating a long list of clever products ...
Caito Marcondes has played the rhythm of Brazil his entire life. As a result of years of playing and research, he has become one of the world’s leading experts of Afro-Latin rhythm and dr...
Anne McGinty was hired by the Armstrong Flute Company in the late 1970s to run their publishing division after the company aquired Hansen as their distributor. Anne later moved to Florid...
Dean Samuel is the son of industry leader, Lowell Samuel, who not only formed the Samuel Music retail store in Effingham, IL but the pioneering music wholesale company, MIDCO, in 1964. Lo...
Bill Mendello retired as president of Fender Musical Instrument Corp in the fall of 2010 after a long career in the industry. He was hired in the accounting department of CBS Musical Inst...
Robert Ulrich served as Chairman of Target and helped pioneer the mass retailing of affordable musical instruments in what has been known as the Big Box Stores. In 2010, the year after hi...
Peter Webster has dedicated his career to music education. Peter is the John Beattie Professor of Music Education at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Chicago. He w...
Marcia Neel began her career as a band director in a public high school. After a successful teaching career, she turned her focus on advancing music education within the American educatio...
Felice Mancini grew up in a home full of music. Her father was an Oscar-winning composer and her mother is the noted vocalist who formed the Society of Singers. Felice has devoted herself...
Stanley Leonard, the principal timpanist emeritus for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, was interviewed during PASIC 2010 on the very day he was inducted into the PAS Hall of Fame. It wa...
George Jacob greatly enjoys creating musical products for musicians –of all levels and ages. When a customer needed a softer sound with his drum sticks, George came to the rescue and deve...
Billy Grammer formed his own guitar company after years of playing country music in and around Nashville. Billy recorded several hit records on his own as well as playing behind some of t...
Jim Funada has dedicated the past four decades to serving the music products industry with passion and commitment. His journey began at the Yamaha Corporation, where he delved into keyboa...
Terren Frenz has been likened to Mr. Holland from the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” a dedicated and long lasting music educator who cares deeply about bringing music into the lives of his st...
Ritchie Fliegler has come to be known throughout the music products industry as “the Amp guy.” He wrote several articles and two popular books on amplifiers. He has been in the forefront ...
