Bud Isaacs designed a line of pedal steel guitars, teaming with fellow country music performer Shot Jackson to form the Sho-Bud Company. In his pursuit to create and develop new sounds fo...
Glenn Holtz was raised in the music products industry. His father, Ed, was a sales manager for Ludwig Drum Company. Glenn spent 9 years as Selmer District Manager then 2 years as Field Ma...
Don Hogue worked with Dr. Kent in the C.G. Conn Research Department. The historic lab created or improved many mathematical and engineering theories used in countless musical instrument d...
Karl Hirano was an electronic engineer for Yamaha in Japan during the great MIDI boom of the early 1980s. In fact, Karl was a member of the team that gathered at the 1983 NAMM Show to dis...
James Glanville was part of the team that relocated the Conn instrument manufacturing operations from Elkhart, IN to Nogales, Mexico, back in 1972. The result was a heavy blow to Elkhart,...
Paul Gentile has created a series of artwork in the form of miniature musical instruments. His art incorporates the passion and history in works such as the saxophone, violin and piano. ...
Marv Drucker spent his early career in New York playing all types of venues from showrooms, to hotels, dives, clubs and theaters, more than you can imagine. Such performers were referred ...
Herbert Deutsch was down in Robert Moog’s basement when the two men were redrafting the design of an electronic synthesizer in the early 1960s. Herb suggested that the modular unit with p...
Ellis Day was a familiar face to NAMM show attendees for several decades as the front line trombone player on the opening day’s Petiot All-Industry Marching Band performances. Ellis has h...
Madeleine Crouch always has an endless amount of energy. In the role of industry association manager, Madeleine took over the company established by Don Dillon, which offers organizationa...
John Connolly established the Connolly Music Company (originally Connolly & Co., Inc.) back in 1970. Best known for distributing such brands as Thomastik-Infeld and König & Meyer,...
Gene Chrisman was among the celebrated studio musicians from Tennessee who played on countless recordings and helped shape the Memphis Sound during the 1960s and 70s. Gene’s creative drum...
Joe Campana returned from serving in World War II to his native Oakland, California, with a dream-–and the GI Bill. While taking business classes, Joe established Campana Music in nearby ...
Paul Calvin feels that his experience as a music retailer, including several years with Schmitt Music in Minnesota, has been helpful in his role as Vice President and General Manager of t...
Bruce Bush cut his teeth in the industry as a music retailer. Just out of college he managed the print music department of Onondaga Music Service in Syracruse, New York. He later owned th...
Garrett Bowles was always interested in computer technology, music and library science, so it came to no surprise to his family that Garrett found a way to combine the three fields long b...
Athan Billias had a rather impressive vantage point to witness the growth and development of the synthesizer in the late 1970s and early 80s. After performing as a professional musician i...
John Bertrand Sr. has thoroughly enjoyed bringing music to the lives of young students. As a band director in the early part of his career he taught and encouraged children at nearly ever...
Bryan Bell was given the task of engineering a working synthesizer using all of Herbie Hancock’s favorite keyboards back in the early 1970s, well before MIDI. Herbie’s single instruction ...
Edna Adams has been a mentor to many within the music publishing and music retail business since first entering the industry in the early 1970s. She joined Charlie Hansen Music Publishing...
Jimmie D. Webb operated a small music shop in Antioch, California, which was also the headquarters for his amplifier business. The Webb Amps were widely used by electric blues and rock b...
Masamitsu Yamano’s grandfather opened up a small music stop in the heart of Ginza –the shopping area of Tokyo, Japan. The year was 1892. The retailer, which started out as a small keyboar...
Jack Linton followed in the footsteps of his father who formed the famed Linton oboes brand of musical instruments. The instruments have been handcrafted in Elkhart, Indiana, since the 19...
Wayne Charvel is the electric guitar designer and luthier who placed colorful and innovative instruments in the hands of heavy rockers in the 1980s and 90s--ushering in a new era of music...
Francois Leduc was the President of the French music publishing company Editions Alphonse Leduc, which has been in his family since it was first established in 1841. The family musical or...
Ted McCarty was the president of Gibson Guitars when he signed Les Paul to help design a series of instruments with his name. Ted went on to design and patent guitars such as the Flying ...
Gerhard Meinl represents the 7th generation in a family of brass instrument makers. After integrating the East German, formerly state-owned, B&S GmbH in Markneukirchen in 1991 with Me...
Masashi Miyazawa formed the Miyazawa Flutes Company in 1969. Mr. Miyazawa founded the company with a dream to create a better instrument. With his background in the design and manufacture...
Takuya Nakata is the Director and Executive Officer for Yamaha in Japan. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided details about the development of Yamaha’s electronic musical pr...
Hideo Nonaka was the chairman of Nonaka Boeki Company, a music instrument distributor located in Yokohama, Japan. His father began importing musical recordings in a business that was burn...
