Music Advocacy
Patrick Selmer is proud of his family’s long and important history as instrument makers in France. The company produces many of the finest band and orchestra instruments in the world and for decades were leaders in design and craftsmanship. Selmer Paris continues to focus on innovations and under...
Sir John Pearse was proud of the role he played in encouraging countless people to play the guitar. His BBC program Hold Down a Chord was based on lessons he created by picking up simple techniques from his favorite blues players such as Mississippi John Hurt and Big Bill Broonzy. John provided a...
Nikolaus Schimmel served as president for his family’s piano company for several decades. The German based Schimmel Piano Company has been building fine instruments for over one hundred years and under Nikolaus’ leadership the company expanded its export business, becoming a well-known brand of...
Sam Hinton was a national treasure. It seems appropriate to use that term when talking about him because he become an important and invaluable preservationist of some of our nation's greatest treasures, folk songs. Sam spent many years traveling the backwoods of this country in search of...
James Saied, the founder of the Saied Music Store chain in Oklahoma loved the marches of John Phillip Sousa! In fact, he liked them so much that he teamed with then NAMM President Ziggy Coyle to create the bill Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1983 making the “Stars and Strips Forever” the national...
Dr. Mable John served many people in a variety of ways during her long life. She was a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, author, educator, leader, minister, mentor, music advocate and a friend. Her career as a backup singer and soloist broke ground at Stax Records and later with Ray Charles....
AV (Bam) Bamford was a colorful country music producer originally from Cuba. During the mid-1930s, he owned and operated a string of radio stations, mostly in the southern United States. As a promoter of these stations, he often befriended performers who would perform live on the radio or at remote...
Murray Davison was a trumpet player who had a few gigs during the Big Band Era, but had to get a day job after the war. While he became a successful businessman, music was never far away. In the 1960s, he established the "Jazz at Noon" concert series in New York City and, a decade later, began...
Tony Schmidt was the very first volunteer of the NAMM Foundation’s Museum of Making Music (located in the NAMM building) to provide 1,000 hours of service. As a kid, he saw Duke Ellington perform in his hometown of Chicago and was hooked, not only on Ellington (for which he was a noted expert), but...
Bob Taylor enrolled in wood shop while a student in high school and made a guitar for his final grade. The idea of making his own guitars came easy to Bob and he set out to create his own style of guitars. Many of his friends told him he could not compete with long standing companies, but Bob...