Mason and Hamlin Piano Company
Bruce Clark was interviewed for the NAMM Oral History program during the 2015 Piano Technician Guild’s (PTG) annual convention in Denver, Colorado in July 2015. During his interview he covered his passion for music and well as his long association with the piano industry. Much of his design work...
Cecil Ramirez started in the music industry in retail, at the Music Box in Lodi, California. He created a keyboard studio feel within the store in1983, which was an exciting time of technological advances in electronic instrumentation. Cecil remembered the early days of MIDI and the synthesizer...
Paul Monachino grew up in the Rochester, New York area during the big band era. He played trumpet and set out to see as many of the dance bands as he could including his hero Harry James. After serving during World War II, Paul was hired by the American Piano Company in 1946, the same year he was...
Elmer Reeder and his brother purchased a sawmill outside of Lansing, Michigan, right after World War II. It was during that time that Elmer became an expert in wood, an important part of his career years later. When his son, Jim, opened a piano shop and retail store called James Reeder Piano,...
James Reeder is the piano technician who formed James Reeder Piano in Lansing, Michigan, as both a repair and retail business. With a strong background in the restoration of pianos, Jim sought to hire top craftsmen to create the best service possible. Among those he hired was his father, who had...
Gary Burgett and his brother Kirk established PianoDisc out of their piano retail store in Sacramento, California in the late 1970s. Gary was a pianist and music teacher with a successful studio of his own, and Kirk was a skilled piano technician and rebuilder. The store, Burgett Pianos, sold a...
Tom Lagomarsino has served as marketing director and Executive Vice President of PianoDisc since the company was established in 1988. Tom was there when the very first unit was shipped and helped create the marketing approach that has been of great success for the company and its products. The...
Arthur Linter had many stories to share, like the one about his real birthday. “My mother told me, ‘Your birthday is March 14, 1913, but it says April 5 on your birth certificate because the doctor put it in his pocket and carried it around for a few days before he filed it.’”
He was a street wise...