Composer/Songwriter
Ella Jenkins earned the title The First Lady of Children's Folk Songs and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedication to bringing music to children. She began collecting and writing folk songs as a summer camp counselor, which years later tied nicely with her college studies of child...
Lester Abrams is the songwriter who teamed up with Michael McDonald to pen the Doobie Brothers hit "Minute by Minute." As a teenager and playing drums, Lester's first band was the El Doradoe. He later switched to keyboard and after playing with a few other bands landed in the innovative band...
Peter Sprague smiled as the audience at the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California continued their applause. It was one of many performances that month in mid-2012 for Peter, but a special one to those who heard music in a different way. Peter’s career is filled with...
Ray Parker Jr may best be known for writing the soundtrack to Gostbusters, but his legacy goes back much further. Starting in Detroit as a teenager, Ray got the opportunity to work and tour with Stevie Wonder. Ray eventually went on to do writing and session work in LA, before finally going on to...
Suzanne Ciani played a key role in the early awareness and usage of electronic musical instruments into pop music, film and even the stage. She was experimenting with electronic musical instruments long before many other performers, male or female. When she began composing on the Buchla...
Freddie Washington is proud of the connections he has made in the music world as a bass player and that his passion for music has led to so many opportunities to make music with other passionate musicians! His first professional gig was with Herbie Hancock when Freddie was 19 years old. He later...
Adrian Belew had the NAMM attendees on their feet when he joined the All Star Guitar Night in Nashville 2003. Perhaps the feelings were more than just an appreciation for his music as many NAMM members in the audience have become close to him as a product specialist over the years. Those members...
Philip Leader is a freelance content programmer for electronic musical instruments, with a background in piano, organ and keyboard sales, following in the footsteps of his dad Alec Leader, who was a Concert Artist for Lowrey, Thomas, Hammond, Kimball and Roland, through the 70s and 80s. Alec had...
Lita Ford asked her father to use his old reel to reel tape machine as an amp for her newly purchased electric guitar. With a little soldering, she transformed the tape machine and set out on her next gig. Soon after she helped form the all-girls Punk Rock band called the Runaways! Her driving...
Toru Hora was classically trained on the piano and attended Juilliard. He joined the Buffet Crampon company in 1964 and both established and served as president of the Buffet Japan branch three years later. Much of his effort in Japan was to establish the brass instruments into the market and to...