Akio Hiyoshi was on the engineering team at Yamaha in 1959 that designed the Electone Organ, which brought the small piano manufacturer into the electronic musical instrument market, wher...
Ken Oda was hired by Yamaha in 1967 to run their retail store in San Francisco, California. He continued to work for the company until his retirement at which point he joined Fender Musi...
Hirokazu Kato took part in the innovative engineering team at Yamaha in Japan who utilized FM Synthesis to create an electronic musical instrument, first the TRX prototype and then the re...
Mitsuo Kasahara served as the first president of Yamaha Corporation of America after setting up the branch office in Southern California in 1961. Three years earlier he established the f...
Kazuo Matsushita is the son of the founder of Audio-Technica, a creative and innovative company that has been an important part of the music industry since the early 1960s. When Kazuo b...
Katie Yu first heard about Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong while her children were taking music lessons. In 1991, she began working in the administrative office for the store. She fou...
Kenny Lee began playing music in grade school and has been passionate about it ever since those early years. When he heard from a friend about a job at Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong...
Frank Lee’s parents established Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong to bring quality musical instruments to their customers. As President of the company, Frank has focused on those origin...
Louis Ip was given a lead from a friend that Tom Lee Music in Hong Kong was hiring and he raced down to apply. He has since enjoyed one of the longest employments with the company, fifty...
Keith Chen joined the Tom Lee Music Company in Hong Kong as a guitar salesman. The large store had a small guitar department when Keith first joined the company and he took great pride i...
Neville Marten has enjoyed a long career as editor of Guitar Techniques, one of the magazines represented by his firm Future Publishing. Prior to that, he was editor of Guitarist magazin...
Clive Roberts has wonderful memories of his parent’s passion for music. His mother played piano and his father performed his own songs on the ukulele-banjo for the troops during World Wa...
David Marshall grew up in a musical home and played piano and cello at an early age. As part of the Wessex Youth Orchestra he played in many prestigious concerts including the Schools Pr...
Anthony Macari is the Managing Director of the music shop in London, England named by his father. Macari’s Musical Instruments first opened in 1958 and was established by Joe and Larry M...
Alun Hughes grew up in Wales, which has a very much musical community, which he became very active and interested. Playing saxophone, flute and clarinet, Alun realized at an early age th...
Genett Gamber was passionate about music making from a very young age. She recalls her mother arranged to have a piano teacher come to the house and being so excited about learning as mu...
Hartmut Willms is the President of Piano Willms, a firm established by his grandfather and his two brothers back in 1912. Hartmut’s grandfather enjoyed building pianos and created the Wi...
Lutz Wentscher spoke of the long history of Tonger Music House, one of the most traditional publishers in Germany. As CEO, Lutz has helped guide the company in recent years, yet looks ba...
Linda Vincent worked for a short time at the NAMM headquarters, which is where she met her husband, the late John Vincent, who at the time was Director of Trade Shows. We missed our chanc...
Prof. Dr. Jörg Sennheiser grew up in the music business and proudly followed in his father’s footsteps in leading the engineering of the company his father, Fritz, formed back in 1945. S...
Paula Simmons wanted to create a shop where good quality instruments could be accessible to all those who came in the store. As a teacher, Paula was very interested in providing lessons ...
Kev Rones received his first instrument experience when a musician on his block recognized Kev’s passion and allowed him to use the Fender in his garage. That early influence really dir...
Dan Rodowicz was encouraged at an early age to play music. His parents arranged piano lessons, which led to trombone, which was the instrument of his beloved uncle. Dan was influenced by...
Lee Rocker formed a punk rock style group that just happened to play rockabilly. The Stray Cats had a host of hit records, first in England and beginning in the early 1980s in the United...
Gordon Grubbs grew up in a very musical home. His mother was a professional pianist and was very encouraging to Gordon when he was three and wanted to play. Gordon was later guided by a...
Lori Frazer’s mother taught piano and organ, which was the foundation for her own passion for music. When Lori was a small child, her mother purchased a piano for the home, which later w...
Andy Fraser took part in the second wave of the British Invasion in the late 1960s as a member of Free. He joined the group as a teenager and in fact was instrumental in the writing of t...
John Fitzgerald focused on making creative music ever since his education at Cal Arts in the late 1970s. As his career developed, all of his experiences brought John directly to Remo Bel...
Stephen Wick's father Denis is a well-regarded classical musician. The passion for music growing up remains with Stephen to this very day. Together father and son work in the company Den...
Louise Harrison was the older sister of George and played an important role in the Beatle's success in America. In 1963, the year before the Beatles arrived, Louise was living in the Uni...
