Jim Green has been a fixture in the Elkhart band instrument industry since the 1960s. He first worked for Armstrong Flute Company before joining jj Babbitt in 1974. After a short absenc...
Jon Bormann attended his first AES Show in 1973. Just two years later, at the age of 25, he formed his own pro audio dealership, AVC Systems. Soon Jon began designing and building studi...
George Nellas started his career in the music industry at Byerly Music in the 1970s selling home organs in the store's mall locations. After moving to Los Angeles, George worked for Sher...
Rich Galassini was nineteen years old when he first visited Cunningham Pianos as a customer with his parents. A few years later, in 1987, when he was just 23, Rich began working at the s...
Bob Carlin got interested in rock and roll when he was just 12 years old. As a kid, he would go into Manny’s Music in New York just to see the guitars and how the industry operated. Later...
Darren Speir often reflects back on the Texas music store his uncle and his father opened. His father was a piano technician and helped build the store's customer list based on his atten...
Lori Rubinstein was the first employee of the Theatrical Dealers Association, which in 1994 changed its name to the Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA). Under Lori's ...
Dean Daniels plays a vital role in the production of the annual TEC Awards during the Anaheim NAMM Shows. His expertise in video production goes back to the early days of country music p...
Abraham Wechter grew up listening to Yiddish music and took piano and violin lessons as a kid. He used to sneak a transistor radio under his pillow at night and listen to underground rock...
Angela Koregelos grew up playing the flute and taking lessons from her father, George Koregelos. George owned his own retail store and Angela has fond memories of working alongside her fa...
Sarah Hagan wanted to play the drums more than anything when she was young. After asking so many times, her parents finally agreed and got her a snare drum and signed her up for lessons. ...
Stu Cohen grew up playing the clarinet, and took lessons for close to eight years. In the early 1950s, Stu listened mostly to country music on the radio, just because it was the only stat...
David Bergstrom spent 10 years studying classical guitar, and even traveled to Spain to study under André Segovia. Upon returning to the United States, David found a career in the music p...
Bruce Pearson developed his own methods of teaching students music, which became the center of his three successful book series for Kjos Music Publishing. He taught music in the public s...
Music Stores are the first glimpse into the music industry for many of us, and often ignite the passion to play. This compilation from the Oral History archives features memories of music...
Christopher Parks is the CEO of Quilter Laboratories, LLC. His first introduction to music was when he joined the school choir at a young age. This alone pushed Christopher to pursue a ca...
Harold Owens has always had a passion for music throughout his life, but has also struggled with addiction. After entering recovery and basically starting his life over, Harold wanted to ...
Thomas Nordegg is originally from Vienna, Austria, and when he heard The Beatles for the first time, he knew that he wanted to be in the music industry. In 1972, Thomas moved to the Unite...
Terry Lawless is an expert at all things MIDI. When the language first came out, it was hard for most people to learn and especially difficult to program. However, Terry, who had just com...
Billy Klein is a co-founder of Hybrid Studios in Santa Ana, California. He got into the music industry the way most of us do - playing in a band and experimenting with recording. He then ...
Basilios Strmec grew up in Vienna and was exposed to piano music at an early age. While learning many different languages, he studied business in college and went to work for Xerox. Aft...
Christan Griego grew up surrounded by music. In fact, he did not have a television in his home as a child, but did have a piano! While in the school band during the sixth grade, Christan ...
Paul Nelson was playing guitar behind his friend and musical hero, Johnny Winter, when a friendship developed. The two became musical partners, wrote songs and gigged together over the y...
Percy Bady grew up surrounded by gospel, thanks largely to the fact his father was a minister. Since he was six years old, Percy expressed his feelings through music, especially in churc...
Ed Gerhard knew that there was something special about playing the guitar when he heard Andrés Segovia play on TV when he was 10 years old. He took a few lessons from a music store but le...
Jerry Michelsen started playing the piano when he was four years old. His father worked for the Federal Aviation Agency, so Jerry moved many times during his childhood, but never stopped ...
Roy Good, like many, was first influenced by The Beatles when they came over to the United States as part of the British Invasion. After finishing school, Roy took as many college music c...
Jack Hill was introduced to music at a very young age as his uncle was a professional musician. Jack started taking guitar lessons at eight years old, which he paid for himself with the m...
Barbara Honig found out about the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music when she joined their New Horizons band - a band that offers learning new instruments and playing in a concert b...
