Yukio Ohashi is the chairman of one of Japan’s leading music instrument distributors, Prima Gakki. The company was established in 1945 as a sheet music distributor and wholesaler. Over ...
Hiroo Okabe is the Director and Managing Executive Officer of Yamaha’s Musical Instrument Business Group. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided the history of how Mr. Torakus...
Peter Paul Prier began playing the violin when he was 8 years old, growing up in Germany. He studied violin making while he was a teenager and in 1959 set out to America to open his own v...
John Riddle plays a vital role in the NAMM Trade Show and has for decades. His strong relationships with exhibiting companies is proof of his dedication for customer service when providin...
George Riley is an embodiment of the passion so often found in the music products industry. George worked side by side the founder of Electro-Voice, Al Kahn, during the major expansion ye...
Yukio Sakurai studied photography and art at the university in Tokyo before his uncle asked if Yukio would come to work for him. His uncle was the founder of the Japan Music Trade Magazin...
Johannes Scherzer was a world-renowned master trumpet maker who spent much of his long career with JA Musik Group in Markneukirchen, Germany. His passion for the instrument contributed to...
Leland Smith was the renowned founder of computerized musical notation. He came to symbolize the technological changes in print music beginning in the 1960s. His work as a professor and e...
Peter B. Smith was a composer and publisher who began his career as a musician in the Royal Army Ordinance Corps, later joining the Coldstream Guards and eventually the Queen's Royal Iris...
Dr. Peter Hanser Strecker’s great grandfather worked for a descendent of the Schott’s Music Publishing empire. As president of the firm since 1968, Dr. Strecker has played a key role in t...
Al Sturchio served the Texas Bandmasters Association for over 25 years as director and also as president. His passion and unbelievable energy has been a large part of the success of the a...
Mitsuru Umemura is the eleventh President of the Yamaha Corporation. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided details about the development of Yamaha beginning in 1887. He likes...
Thomas Veerkamp proudly represents the 100-year-old company in Mexico that was formed by his grandfather in 1908. The company began as a small retail store and later expanded to one of th...
Carol Warden learned all she knows about the music industry from her mother and father who opened Dale Music Company in Silver Springs, MD. Over the years she has built on the lessons sh...
H. P. Wilfer inherited the passion and drive of his father who formed the Framus Guitar Company. After hard times and his father’s retirement, H. P. bought back the company to bring the m...
Josef Lausman proudly followed in his family’s footsteps. In the small German village of Nauheim (near Frankfurt) he made mouthpieces, primarily for trumpets and trombones for many years ...
Stephen “Doc” Kupka met Emilio Castillo in July, 1968, and discovered they both had a dream to form a rock and roll band with a strong horn element. By the end of the year the band began ...
Shuji Ito began his career with Yamaha Corporation in 1965 and has since held a series of positions in Japan, the United States and in Europe including managing director and senior managi...
Haruhiko Ikebe developed a novel way of approaching music retailing, creating Super Pro Shops that stock vintage and new instruments along with accessories and knowledgeable sales staff f...
Bob Greene made a name for himself as he expanded the legacy of Jelly Roll Morton. Growing up in New York and playing piano from an early age, Bob became a well-known jazz performer whose...
Bobby Gordon, the jazz clarinetist who helped expand the New Orleans traditions to audiences around the world, was interviewed alongside his long time friend Bob Greene. The two men reuni...
William Fuller began working as a salesman for the Wurlitzer Company in 1953. His original idea was to gain some sales training and look for a job in the office, which was based in his ho...
John Decker had the idea of building a guitar without wood, no wood at all. In the era of limited wood supply and growing technology, John experimented with a host of materials before dec...
Leonardo Baldocci is the President of EMD Music, Inc., a European music wholesaler and distributor that specialize in guitars, drums and percussion instruments, wind instruments, cymbals ...
K. Ethel Merker was asked by the Holton Company to create the now popular Merker French horn. Her career has included acclaimed symphonic performances, radio and TV jingle work, and sever...
Professor Fritz Sennheiser was the head of an engineering team of German scientists assembled right after World War II to improve the function of the electronic microphone. Using his inno...
Billy Shaw and his wife Donna opened Desert Piano in Palm Springs after working in a series of piano sales jobs, including one at Colton Piano where the couple met. Billy is well known in...
Chris Meyer is renowned for his groundbreaking work in designing electronic music devices, he has left an indelible mark on the industry. From his pioneering invention of Vector Synthesis...
Joe Lamond has been a music maker since he was a young boy. After touring with several bands and rock performers, Joe became the manager of Skip’s Music in Sacramento, California, before ...
Roger White’s cousin opened a small music store in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1955. His brother, Jerry, ran the store beginning in 1961 and changed the name to the White House of Music. Rog...
