Illinois
Tim Paul may have been destined for a career in the piano business. Growing up, his mother was a piano teacher and his father a piano technician. One of his earliest jobs was as a ballpark organist for the Midwest League baseball teams, the Quad City Cubs and the Clinton Dodgers. After studying...
Rich Covas owned Modern Music store's three locations for thirteen years beginning in 1966. The locations covered band and orchestra instruments as well as guitar, keyboards, and drums. The company also offered music lessons and repair. In fact, providing lessons is how Rich first began working in...
Rick Nielsen is among the very few rock stars who grew up in a music store! His story and background is perfect for the NAMM Oral History program as it ties together a professional career in music making with mom and pop music retailing! Rick's father purchased a music store in Rockford, Illinois...
Frank Reda worked in the insurance business as a youth, where he credits the training on customer service and sales that he later applied to his work in the music industry. In the 1970s, he was hired by Wurlitzer to manage their retail stores in the Chicago area. While there, he helped train...
Joan Gand followed her drummer to a gig while still in high school. There, he introduced her to a guitarist from another school who eventually became her future husband, Gary Gand. Together they formed a very successful music store in Highland Park, Illinois that focused on the innovative...
Frank Pampenella is the owner and president of PM Music Center in Aurora, IL and has worked in the music industry for over 30 years. He founded PM Music Center in 1982, when he transitioned his successful wedding consulting agency, and lesson studio into a full-service music center specializing in...
Andrew Schertz runs Schertz MusiCenteR in Bloomington, Illinois, with this father Randy. Andrew's uncle, Craig, once owned Byerly Music, which had locations throughout Centeral Illinois. Andrew grew up with the music business all around him and even as a boy sweeping up the store and pricing...
Loren Zimmerman owned Byerly Music in Peoria, Illinois during the 1970s and 80s and is credited for being among the first music retailers to have locations in shopping malls. When he purchased the company from his father-in-law, Eldred Byerly (who served as President of the NAMM Board from 1963-...
Craig Schertz worked for Byerly Music in Peoria, Illinois and saw an opportunity to purchased two of the company’s ten locations when his boss and the current owner, Loren Zimmerman, was ready to retire. The stores continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 80s and when Craig decided to sell the...
Randy Wood is the president of The Music Shoppe in Normal, Illinois. The store specializes in band instrument repairs and strong customer service. The store goes back to the days when a former college band director, John Noonan opened a small retail and repair store. In 1961, Randy's father, Tom...