Full Interview
Ruth Charles and her husband Dick opened a music store in Glendale, California, called Charles Music. They enjoyed a long life together as music makers and teachers and retailers of musical products. The couple pioneered many products in the southern California area including those of Yamaha and...
TM Stevens is a well known character within the music industry who is respected for his design and endorsement of products as well as his mega career as a musician. TM is also beloved for his drive and passion for encouraging young students to become active music makers and has worked long and hard...
Dennis Bamber helped pioneer mail order catalogs for musical products beginning in the 1970s. After opening a small woodwind store in South Bend, Indiana in 1978, Dennis noticed that many of his customers were traveling 5 and 6 hours to his store. While he expanded the size of the store he also...
Jim Funada has proudly served the music products industry in several important ways over the last 40 years. He began his career by working for the Yamaha Corp. in keyboard retailing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jim oversaw the Yamaha school programs among keyboard dealers in the San Francisco Bay...
Ginny Mancini always loved singing! When she had the chance to form a backup group for a 17 year old vocalist coming from Chicago to Los Angles for the first time in the 1940s, Ginny jumped at it. The group became known as the Mel-Tones and they became the backup group for Mel Torme for over 3...
Felice Mancini grew up in a home full of music. Her father was an Oscar-winning composer and her mother is the noted vocalist who formed the Society of Singers. Felice has devoted herself to the non-profit world when she became involved with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation in 1998, just two years...
Bill Tarpley remembered the stories his father used to tell him about the early days of the family music retail store in west Texas. Times were hard during the era of the dust bowls and depression, but he credits his father’s skills as both a businessman and salesman in the success of the store....
Al Siniscal received the Audio Innovator Parnelli Award in 2010 for his major contributions to professional audio innovations over his career, which began in the early 1960s. As founder of A1 Audio, Al has worked with some of the biggest names both in and out of show business including Frank...
Tetsuya Takagi served as Executive Vice President of Yamaha International Corporation (currently Yamaha Corporation of America) and worked for Yamaha Corporation in Japan holding several important positions during his long and successful career. Mr. Takagi received scholarship from Yamaha while in...
Mickey Hart is the noted drummer of the Grateful Dead who has helped define rock drumming since the 1960s. His passion for the art form of percussion led him to write a series of books and countless articles on the history of drumming. His activities have helped popularize drum circles and music...