Deceased
Dr. Richard Brittain was invited to a small gathering of music educators in the months following World War II. The original goal of the meeting was to provide a venue for the music educators to distribute new music scores, which were difficult to obtain. The year was 1946. The first Midwest Band...
Ron Sadler’s great grandfather settled in Aurora, Illinois, outside of Chicago, to establish Sadler Piano. Over the next 123 years, the company has faced some unique times and made an impact on the music industry. During the Great Depression, Ron’s grandfather discontinued manufacturing pianos to...
Gil Ellman grew up in the big band era, loving the sounds of large orchestras. He was motivated to create as many opportunities for students to make music as possible. He studied band instrument repair before opening Ellman’s Music Center in 1958. Soon after the store opened Gil began creating his...
Don Stewart was hired in 1957 by the famous composer Roy Harris to copy music – by HAND. Back in those days, the cost for plate engraving was too high and the music typewriters were not yet sophisticated enough to handle the scores. Don developed his own unique style in musical notation and soon...
Peter Heid enjoyed his career playing with many of the dance bands of the 1930s and 1940s in his hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin. After the war, he used his love of music to open a small store, Heid Music, in the heart of downtown Appleton. The store continued to grow over the years as Peter found...
Walt Johnston was best known throughout the industry for his role in introducing the Pearl Drum Company to the United States. After a gig selling band instruments, Walt was hired by CMI to bring the Pearl kits to the American market. His success was based on several elements, not the least of which...
LaRoy Edwards was the celebrated piano technician who began his long association with Yamaha back in 1961, the year before the company officially entered the United States market. Along the way he helped create the bond assurance program for retailers to track customer satisfaction, and the Little...
Max Mathews was working as an engineer at the famed Bell Laboratory in 1954 when he was asked to determine if the computer Bell was designing could create music. The landmark Music 2 and later Music 4 projects put the two concepts together as early as 1957-–the computer and music had a future and...
Dick Knaub served as president of the Rico Reed Corp. during the 1970s. He oversaw the reed manufacturer’s expansion into magazine advertisements and the company’s return to industry events such as the NAMM show. Dick was a proud supporter of the American Music Conference and served as president of...
John Gronemeyer enjoyed his career in the school band instrument segment of the industry, which included sales positions at CG Conn, King, UMI and Jupiter Band Instruments. John worked for Danny Henkin when many of Henkin’s music companies were sold and became United Musical Instruments in 1985....