Kees van Willigen opened a music shop in Holland in 1968. As an accordion player he specialized in the instrument and soon gained a world-wide reputation for his product line and customer...
David Van Koevering worked alongside Bob Moog in the early days of marketing the Minimoog synthesizer. The instrument was the first mass produced synthesizer that produce unique tones, us...
Pete Valentino noticed that band instrument repairmen often had a difficult task in replacing worn pads on flutes and saxophones. He had burned his hands on many occasions and thought tha...
Arturo Valdez is known around the world as the “guitar repairman to the stars.” With his shop located on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California, Arturo has worked on thousands of guitars, ...
DeForest Thornburgh came into the industry with a strong business background and a deep-seated passion for guitars. When an opportunity arose to purchase the well-established Blue Guitar...
Norm Thompson began his career in the music products industry as a salesman for retailers in Memphis during the 1950s. He worked his way up to a position of buyer for the store O. K. Hauc...
Morley Thompson’s financial background was a key element in the expansion of the Baldwin Piano Company during the 1980s. Morley created a credit company and finance programs under the Bal...
Hans Thomann, the visionary behind the iconic music store empire in Germany, transformed his love for music into a harmonious business venture. From humble beginnings with his father’s mu...
Toshitsugu “Tom” Tanaka, the president of Hoshino Gakki. Ltd, recalled with a smile his early training in the industry under Harry Rosenbloom of Medley Music. That experience not only edu...
Mehmet Tamdeger’s mentor was Mikkail Zilcan, who taught him everything the master craftsmen knew about cymbal making. Mehmet was born in the same small village outside Istanbul, Turkey wh...
Manji Suzuki had a deep passion for the music industry. He is the founder and president of Suzuki Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company in Hamamatsu, Japan. The company began as a harm...
Fujio Suzuki was the president of the Suzuki Musical Instrument Company in Japan in 2003 when the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music celebrated the launching of the new Hammond-Suz...
Don Stewart was hired in 1957 by the famous composer Roy Harris to copy music – by HAND. Back in those days, the cost for plate engraving was too high and the music typewriters were not y...
Ralph Sordyl believed in music! Having started a music repair business in his living room while teaching music, Ralph grew the company, Sordyl’s House of Music, to one of the best known i...
Ed Soph toured as the drummer and percussionist for several noted jazz bands during the 1970s. His noted work with the Woody Herman Orchestra led to gigs with the Glenn Miller Ghost Band ...
Paul Reed Smith began playing guitar as a teenager. He soon designed his own style of guitar, which he built. At first he did not think about selling the instruments he was designing, but...
Holger Siems had a prolific career in music publishing. Beginning in his native Germany, Holger worked for several top publishing firms in key positions. Among his many accomplishments in...
Mototsugu Shimamura grew a small Japanese music retail store into the country’s largest music retail chain. Shimamura Music has played a vital role in music education and the expansion of...
Bobby Shew’s cool jazz trumpet style helped revolutionize jazz in the 1960s through a series of successful recordings and world tours. During those years he developed several ideas that w...
Gilberto Serna is the keeper of the Deagan flame! The mighty vibraphone company once produced professional level instruments used by symphonic and popular musicians alike. Shortly after t...
Ekhard Seidl’s steady hand and concentration, so evident when watching him, can be traced back to his grandfather and the tradition of violin making in the town of Markneukirchen Germany....
Sandy Schroeder speaks with fond memories of his years in the music industry, most notably his current career at Shure Incorporated, “Most folks don’t know that although Shure has been ar...
Nikolaus Schimmel served as president for his family’s piano company for several decades. The German based Schimmel Piano Company has been building fine instruments for over one hundred y...
Hannes Schimmel-Vogel is the president of the German based Schimmel Piano Company. He took over the role when his father-in-law, Nikolaus Schimmel, retired. At the time of his first NAMM ...
Elianne Schiedmayer proudly serves as the CEO of the Schiedmayer company. Since 1735 Schiedmayer has been at the service of music, building keyboard instruments of the highest craft. In 1...
Robert Saied took great inspiration from his father, James. Robert’s father formed the Saied Music Company in Tulsa, OK in 1946 after serving as a band director in various schools in the ...
Ron Sadler’s great grandfather settled in Aurora, Illinois, outside of Chicago, to establish Sadler Piano. Over the next 123 years, the company has faced some unique times and made an imp...
Marcus Ryle began his career in the industry as an engineer for Oberheim while he was still a teenager. In those pre MIDI days, Marcus designed a series of sound controllers as well as pr...
Harry Rosenbloom was the founder of Medley Music and one of the true pioneers of import relations with the Japanese beginning in the late 1950s. He developed and maintained key partnershi...
Mike Rosen is a professor of percussion at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. Over the years Mike has been very active with the Percussive Arts Society and has contribute...
