Wilton Syckes was thought to have sold more pianos than any other salesman. A veteran of the industry, Wilton was also a former president of the National Piano Traveler’s Association. The...
Frank Untermyer studied woodworking and instrument building in Germany before returning to the United States to help form Hamer Guitars with college friends, Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig. T...
Joe Ussery was the supply manager for the Baldwin Piano factory in Greenwood, Mississippi when he first joined the company in 1973. He later helped manage the raw materials for Greenwood ...
Jim Whitehill provided a very important overview of the products and politics of the Norlin Music Company, which was originally named Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI), when Mr. M.H. Berl...
Ralph Zumpano worked in the Kenosha, Wisconsin, Leblanc plant most of his professional career. Ralph married Vito Pascucci’s sister and was alongside Vito from the very beginning of the o...
Imero Fiorentino was considered by many the father of pro-lighting! He began his career just as television was coming into its own in the early 1950s. He worked on live broadcast with new...
Bobby Feldman wrote three hit songs in the 1960s that are still being played and recorded today. His songwriting began at a desk in the Brill Building in New York City. He formed several ...
Rodney Ethridge was the plant manager for the Baldwin Piano factory in Greenwood, Mississippi beginning in the early 1970s. He began working in the engineering department and rose to mana...
Richard Ellis was proud of the three main areas of his professional career; playing, teaching and selling musical instruments. As a teenager Richard traveled with a big band, playing danc...
David Ellis was greatly influenced by his father, Richard Ellis, the band director and music store founder. Growing up in the business, David developed a strong passion for music both as ...
Daniel Dorff has been heavily involved in the music publishing industry for most of his professional life. He has worked for the Theodore Presser Company in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania,...
Charlie Daniels won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance in 1979 for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", which reached #3 on the charts. The following year, "Devil" became a ...
John D’Addario's family has been shaping the music industry since the 1670s, when Donato D’Addario began crafting strings by hand. Following in this legacy, John's father pioneered synthe...
Dick Christian has spent his entire career in the piano and organ business and has made many friends along the way. His support for the industry led him to the role as president of the Na...
Bill Cooper was an independent sales representative whose background included a great many experiences that helped Bill best serve his dealers. Bill, who played French Horn in school, tau...
Ted Chapin has many stories about the music industry, making his June 2010 interview fascinating. As president of Rodgers & Hammerstein Music since 1985 he spoke of the growth and dev...
Bugs Bower was one of the great characters of music publishing that helped re-direct the industry following World War II. Before and during the war, Bugs was a musician and arranger who p...
Dick Boak has served as Director of Artist Relations for the C.F. Martin & Company during the development of the popular signature series product line, as well as for such historic pr...
Gayle Beacock and her brother are second-generation music storeowners with a flair for business and a passion for encouraging music making. Gayle’s parents started Beacock Music to build ...
William Bartolini and his wife, Patricia, are among the world’s foremost experts on the science of acoustics. Their early publications on the subject in the 1960s and 1970s have since bec...
Buddy Harman Jr. followed in the footsteps of his legendary father, Buddy Harman, one of the most influential studio drummers in Nashville history. Since his father’s passing in 2008, Bud...
Brian Holland and his brother Eddie are among the most popular songwriting teams in the history of popular music! For decades they have created the words and music to Motown’s classic sou...
Eddie Holland gained worldwide fame as a Motown Record’s songwriter and music publisher along with his brother Brian. Eddie was also a recording artist who performed the chart-topping hit...
Mike Stoller always had musical ideas as a kid but never felt complete as a songwriter until he met Jerry Leiber. Together Leiber and Stoller redefined R&B and Rock & Roll with a ...
Jerry Leiber was one half of Leiber and Stoller, one of the most influential and successful songwriting teams of the 1950s R&B movement. They played a critical role in the early days ...
Nina Rockley has been a strong force in the success of Rockley Music in Denver, Colorado. Soon after marrying the store's president, Robert, she brought her business knowledge to music re...
Robert Rockley took over the music store that his parents had started in Denver, Colorado. Bob, along with his wife Nina, expanded the products they carried while he focused on growing th...
Jane Traum and her husband Happy, are the founders of Homespun Music, which for decades has offered a growing collection of musical instrument training classes. Happy began with a new cla...
Happy Traum began his musical career in the 1960s, greatly influenced by the folk movement that had gripped the culture in America. He and his late brother, Artie, helped establish a New ...
Patricia Bartolini and her husband William formed the Bartolini Pickup and Electronics Company in 1973 largely based on the acoustic research both had conducted over a range of several ye...
