Skip Daynes is proud of his heritage and the fact that he operates the oldest family- owned music store in the United States. Daynes Music in Salt Lake was also one of the first Steinway ...
Willy Vassilopoulos joined the Ovation Guitar Company in New Hartford Connecticut to follow his love of woodworking. He soon took part in the production of the instrument, which was orig...
Michael Tobias is well known as a gifted and knowledgeable guitar luthier. The Tobias bass, now made by Gibson, has often been praised for its playability and unique sound. Mike is also a...
Jeff Rona played a critical role in the coming together of the minds and companies that would agree on the MIDI specs back in the 1980s. The meetings took place at NAMM shows over several...
Richard Hoover is the founder of Santa Cruz Guitars and a noted luthier known for his methods that demonstrate traditional guitar building is possible even in the modern era of technology...
Lorin Hollander is a world-renowned concert pianist with a continuously acclaimed 50-year international career that began with a Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 11. Lorin was an infant ...
Jack Costanzo, also known as Mr. Bongo, nearly single-handedly (sorry for the pun) brought the bongo to enormous popularity in the 1950s. Jack recorded top selling albums, appeared on TV ...
Karl Bruhn was the Bob Hope of the music industry, having received so many awards and accolades – an award should have been given for the most awards received. Karl gained his reputation ...
Craig Anderton was among a very small group of engineers at the dawn of the synthesizer revolution during the 1970s that was in the position to report, educate and compose music based on ...
Eddie Toporek began as an innovative musical wholesaler when he set out to create a new type of distribution business, with a heavy influence on the latest technology. As a result Eddie c...
Louise Leed met her future husband while performing as a singer in her native South Africa. After having their four children, her British husband, David, suggested the family move back to...
David Leed was born in the United Kingdom where he was hired by Boosey & Hawkes, which sent him to South Africa. While there, David became the General Manager for the Hammond Organ Co...
Robert J. Jones traveled on a tour bus with his father and sang gospel music together for many years as the Song Fellows. They recorded for Homeland Records in Nashville and performed aro...
David Teegarden, the drummer for the Silver Bullet Band and noted recording engineer, was among the first musicians to be interviewed for the NAMM Resource Center collection. With a growi...
Billy Taylor was first and foremost a jazz pianist. This fact might surprise some people who knew Billy best for one of a number of other careers he enjoyed in music, including teaching, ...
Dave Pike made an indelible mark on jazz vibraphones! As a percussive based player, Dave wanted to play with both rhythm and pitch and to explore melodies within Bebop riffs. He played wi...
Curtis Pearson served proudly during World War II and, upon returning to the United States, was told of a sales job at the Poole Music Company. After several successful years and getting ...
Günter Körner began designing musical instruments at an early age growing up in Germany and, after gaining an engineering degree in college, he spent his entire career making instruments....
Norman Goldberg studied music from an early age and became a band director early in his life. Seeing the needs of music educators, Norman opened his own store called Baton Music in 1948, ...
George Avakian produced so many pop and jazz recordings over his 50 plus year career with several labels it might be easier to list the recordings he did not take part in. Before entering...
Myung‑Sool Min has become one of the most successful music retailers in Korean history. Through a period in which many changes occurred in the way Korea does business around the world, Mr...
Gordon Keller owned and operated a string of piano stores in and around northern Virginia and became a much-celebrated figure in the area due to his work at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Tr...
Ray Manzarek founded the iconic rock band The Doors on the beach in Venice in 1965 with his friend from UCLA film school, Jim Morrison. From that sunny summer day of sharing songs and the...
Gary Kramer broke into the music products industry, with partner Travis Bean, when they unveiled the innovative all aluminum guitar neck design in the early 1970’s. With his entrepreneur...
Neil A. Kjos, Jr. took over the music publishing company that his father, Neil A. Kjos, Sr. had formed in 1936. He began by developing and adding the best-selling Bastien Piano publicati...
Danny Henkin was one of the true characters of the music products industry. He began his career with G. Leblanc Corporation and later worked as sales and marketing manager for Gemeinhardt...
Paul Heid grew up in the music retail world. His father formed Heid Music in Appleton, WI, and Paul along with his brother, Robert, followed in their father’s footsteps. Paul served on se...
Lee Worsley and Paul Hagen represent the modern distribution era with their music wholesale business in the United Kingdom—a business formed after the advent of computer technology and th...
Horst Wittner’s grandfather, Gustav Wittner, formed a precision mechanical factory for the production of metronomes in 1895. His son, Rudolf, expanded the plant and helped set standards ...
Bob Wiley’s father opened a small music store in Kansas in the mid 1930s and specialized in steel guitars. When the sales rep, Charlie Hayes, came into the store with electric guitars fro...
