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...
Lillian Siegh played a vital role in the inner workings of NAMM for over 35 years! William Gard hired Lillian as a secretary in 1949 and for a time she was the office manager before becom...
Ryoji Okamoto was the chairman for Kiwaya Corporation in Japan, which was established in 1919 and has since become one of the most important manufacturers of the ukulele. With his keen in...
Bobby Wood enjoyed playing the organ as a child growing up in church in northern Mississippi. He crafted a well-regarded career as a recording artist and studio artist who is perhaps best...
Babe Simoni began working for the Fender Guitar Company in 1953. He was a teenager when George Fullerton hired him to work on the factory floor. Babe’s father had worked in the plant just...
Dorothy Schwartz was one of the original members of a girls Barber Shop style group that was brainchild of a girlfriend from high school in her hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The group...
Dick Schory had a very successful career as a composer and arranger of percussive music. With over a dozen albums as a musician and arranger and another 400 as a producer, Dick has made a...
Fred Salvador grew up in the music business. His grandfather opened a small music store for which Fred remembers working in as a small boy. Years later Fred joined the staff of the musi...
Paul McGuire served as president of the Electro-Voice microphone and Speaker Company, having worked his way up through the organization. Paul’s love of the company and attention to detail...
Jim Long first joined Electro-Voice as a summer engineering intern in the 1960s and later returned, soon transferring into marketing, where he held a variety of positions over the years. ...
Roger Linn forever changed the way people dance! As the inventor of the electronic Linn drum machine, he ushered in the new wave of electronic dance music beginning in the 1980s. The Linn...
Craig Knudsen cut his teeth on the industry as many people who have come to service in leadership positions. He started working for the Wurlitzer Company during college. After graduating ...
Ed Harris purchased the Teller music wholesaler in Chicago during the 1960s. Along with his brother, Mike, Ed changed the name to Harris-Teller and expanded the company’s dealer base and...
DeDe Guth joined the customer service team at Yamaha’s band instrument factory in Michigan in 1980. There she learned first hand the company’s philosophy and attention to customer satisfa...
Don Getzen sure knew the history of the band instruments made in the mid-west! Don’s father was the plant manager for the Holton Company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, his oldest uncle was the pl...
Tim Cunningham worked for a trade show design company in the late 1960s for which NAMM was a client. William Gard, NAMM’s CEO at the time, offered Tim a full time job to oversee the show'...
Carol Buschmann grew up in Sheboygan, Wisconsin where she joined the all female singing group the Chordettes just a year after it was formed in 1947. She stayed with the group until they ...
Avery Burdette, the product manager for Yamaha Corporation of America, began his long love of music pushing down the pedals of his mother's organ as a small child while his mother played....
Lewis Brown joined the CG Conn Company in 1941 working in the band instrument assembly department. Less than two years later he was drafted to serve the United States during World War II....
Ed Boyer began working for Yamaha Corporation of America in 1983 with a focus on the band and orchestral products. With a strong background in retail, Ed developed long-lasting partnershi...
Ron Whitaker is a rock drummer who found himself an endorser of several cutting-edge percussive products over the years. As he proudly points out, he never endorsed a product he did not b...
Brian Vincik was in the right place at the right time. As a synthesizer enthusiast and engineer, Brian graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1979 and moved to the San Francisco Bay A...
Lori Supinie was an active music maker since she was a child. Throughout her life she provided music and music lessons to others as well as being a strong leader within the music products...
Tom Sumner grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where he not only played guitar in local bands but also worked in area music stores. While attending college Tom worked in music retail as...
Kevin Smith opened the Violin Shop in San Diego after extensive training as a violin luthier and appraiser. His knowledge of the craftsmanship of violin making was on display during his N...
Dave Smith was the founder of Sequential Circuits and inventor of the polyphonic synthesizer, the Prophet 5. Dave was also the designer and original pioneer of MIDI (musical instrument di...
Hisatake Shibuya took great pride in developing music education opportunities for students wishing to bring music into their lives. By forming music schools in Japan and later opening the...
Patrick Selmer is proud of his family’s long and important history as instrument makers in France. The company produces many of the finest band and orchestra instruments in the world and ...
Ed Rizzuto was surrounded by music his entire life. As a young boy he started playing trombone, which he continued throughout high school and into his military service in the early 1950s....
Sylvia Perry and her late husband, Mack, teamed up in 1945 to establish Peripole, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Perry taught music and worked to innovate and manufacture instruments for the growth an...
