Deceased
Jim McEvoy apprenticed as a piano technician in his native Ireland in 1946. The following decade he and his bride moved to San Diego, CA where he worked at a local music store before opening McEvoy Music. The store had a well-respected sheet music department, which was originally created by Jim and...
Bert Neidhardt was one of the leading experts on musical instrument importing and exporting. As president of German American Trading, he established trade policies and relationships on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Bert told the stories of the German market before, during and after the Berlin...
Jesse Flores was the founder of Flores Music stores located in Peoria and Pekin, Illinois. He had the idea of surrounding himself with music when he was a young boy and when the chance came to open a store, he took it. The year was 1957. Jesse saw the rise of the electric guitar and the home organ...
George Westjohn was hired by Lowell Samuel to oversee the expansion of Mr. Samuel’s interests in the wholesale music business. Mr. Samuel, a former band director, started a music store in the 1940s and a decade later established Midco Music, a music wholesale business with a focus on band and...
Mototsugu Shimamura grew a small Japanese music retail store into the country’s largest music retail chain. Shimamura Music has played a vital role in music education and the expansion of the music market in Japan since 1962. As both president of Shimamura Music and an active member of several...
Bill Wellborn was honored with the National Piano Traveler’s Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 for his dedication to the industry. As a piano salesman, Bill has traveled the country for a number of different piano manufacturers such as PA Stark, Story & Clark and Young Chang. His...
Bob Lozier began working at Freeman Companies with Howard Bailey in the 1960s to support the NAMM shows. Over the years, Bob has been instrumental in forming the infrastructure to support the policies and procedures enabling the growth of the NAMM shows and several other trade conventions...
Vinny Testa was the founder of Testa Communications, which he established in 1984 to provide the music products industry with such trade magazines as The Music & Sound Retailer and DJ Times. Vinny enjoyed pioneering new ways of connecting with his readers including being one of the first to...
Tony Acosta had a dream to make the world’s finest classical guitar strings. He began working nights to perfect his product and build relationships within the industry and slowly gathered the needed equipment. Several years later, when he quit his day job working for an airline, his friends...
Vince Grantano was a fixture among traveling piano representatives. He traveled the entire United States for several companies over the years to bring new products to retailers. His most notable job was with the Winter Piano Company where he worked for several decades. Vince joined the National...