Vern Schafer joined the family business of moving pianos as a teenager, but had the dream of running his own piano store. While still running the Schafer Piano Movers Company, Vern set ou...
John Santuccio was a noted orchestra manager, and also spent time as President of the music publishing company, G. Schirmer. John’s deep passion for classical music was a key factor in hi...
Jim Rupp has had a passion for drumming as far back as he can remember. As a percussionist for several traveling groups in the 1970s such as those led by Maynard Ferguson and Woody Herman...
Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge attended college together and soon developed a few clever ways of combining their engineering training with their passion for music. They began creating sound ...
Bud Ross made his first amplifier for his own band in 1958 to save a little money. Within 5 years he had established Kustom Amps, a leader in product design and innovations. The powerful ...
Liane Rockley gained a degree in flute performance in New York before moving to Denver, where she taught music at a local music store. The storeowner, Bob Rockley, who would become her fa...
Jimmy Rivers was known in the world of Western Swing as an innovative guitarist who played a double neck and brought to life a hard driving style known as the Brisbane Bop. Jimmy was a c...
Layton V. Rawlins was the founder of Rawlins Piano Company in Southern California and a veteran of the piano industry. Layton witnessed many of the biggest changes within the piano busine...
Peter Pulham had a distinct place in the history of the music products industry, in part because he helped preserve it! As publisher and editor of United Kingdom based Music Business maga...
Allen Prather, known throughout the industry as Lowell, became a well-respected sales rep for the Kaman Corporation. He stayed with the company for over thirty years and helped move the c...
Gordon Pfund spent his life in the music industry that he loved. At an early age he began working for Werlein For Music in Louisiana and became enamored with the piano and organ market. H...
Vicki Pedrini grew up in the family’s music retail store in Southern California. She worked in the store on weekends and summer vacations as well as the holiday season, which brought fun ...
Tom Pedrini and his sister Vicki were third generation music retail owners. Their store, Pedrini’s Music, was located in Southern California and had a long and successful influence on the...
Dave McCumiskey enjoyed a long career as a Music Sales Group manager. He worked for the music publisher from the late 1960s until his retirement in 2008, having seen many of the developme...
Jack Martin was a leading piano sales rep for Wurlitzer from 1959 until 1963. Although he spent most of his career in the music industry it was those four years that Jack cherishes the mo...
Michael Gurian established Gurian Instruments, which was incorporated in 1982, and focused originally on creating specialty tools, parts and decorative wood inlay for musical instrument m...
Walter Carter along with his wife, Christie, formed Nashville's "friendliest guitar store" when they opened Carter Vintage Guitars. With a last name so well known in country music, you c...
William Carpenter has an incredible understanding of the music business. Having developed and marketed a percussion accessory, Bill was hired in 1976 by Remo to assist in sales and produ...
Jerry Carp has volunteered as a docent for the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music and helped spread the history of the music products industry to many museum visitors since its ope...
Alex Carozza has designed his own reed system for the accordion. The idea came to Alex after years of performing on the instruments and repairing them in his shop, Alex Music, on 48th St....
Brendan Callinan likes to say that everything he owns he obtained because of music. As a rock performer in the highly successful Australian group the Radiators, Brendan played and wrote s...
Mark Cabaniss always wanted to be in the music business. As a music student graduate and composer he was given that chance while teaching college, when Brentwood Music had an opening. The...
Richard Burke worked for the Rickenbacker Guitar Company in Southern California nearly his entire career before retiring in 2004. Over the years he worked in nearly all of the factory pos...
John Booth has played an enormous role in the development and growth of Roland within the United Kingdom. As President of Roland UK, he has witnessed the expansion of the market in Englan...
Joseph Boonin formed two successful music-publishing companies, which have played an important part in the music products industry. The first of his companies was Joseph Boonin Inc and th...
Don Mitchell is a veteran road rep! Having been in the music business most of his working life, Don has called on more dealers than just about any other salesman in the industry. His know...
Grace Marquette didn't care much for vacations or trips because it took her away from what she loved, her music store. Grace and her late husband, Robert, purchased the Loser’s Music Stor...
Joey Lyons's life always revolved around music, with his first career taking him to Broadway as a dancer. He toured extensively and performed on television, showcasing his talent and pass...
Russell Lindquist joined his uncle’s piano store in Iowa in his early 20s, and soon discovered his love of the business. He especially loved selling. Russell opened a Hammond Organ dealer...
Kimberly Lewis grew up in the industry, first with her father’s ShoBud retail store in Nashville and later with his cable and accessories business known the world over as George L’s. Kimb...
