Music Manufacturing
Steven Raft was the CFO of Alfred Music for several years. Steven grew up in Montreal, Canada and he had an early start working in the music industry: as a teenager he was a manager for community dances which used Cerwin-Vega! loudspeakers. After completing college in California, Steven worked at...
Tim Laskey founded the Wyman Piano Company. After a long and successful career with some of the top names in the music industry, such as Wurlitzer and Baldwin, Tim wanted to introduce a new line of pianos to the market. The Wyman instruments are manufactured with state of the art advances in Asia...
Bob Knight came into the music industry right after World War II and watched instruments slowly make their way back into the music stores. He was hired by CG Conn and enrolled in their band repair school, which was filled mostly with former soldiers, as Bob recalled. The Conn Company asked Bob to...
Lane Zastrow was playing professionally and even teaching music as a teenager. His main instrument, the accordion! After years on the road, Lane made his way into the print world. In 1967, Lane joined Sight & Sound, which was owned by Zeb Billings. He later worked for the famed Chicago...
Bill Walzak grew up in Chicago and found his way to the drums whenever he could. Trash cans and pots were often turned upside down and were Bill’s set! While playing in a band later he invented a cup holder to attach to music stands. In 1982, Bill made his first trip to the NAMM Show with his...
Dave Coontz is a regular sight at NAMM Shows each year behind the counter within the Shubb booth and as it turns out, he played a big part in that company’s success. Rick Shubb was passionate about playing music since he was a child and as he progressed as a musician there were certain ideas he...
Ledward Kaapana grew up in Hawaii with his twin brother, surrounded by musical passion. His parents, grandparents and several aunts and uncles played and sang, and Ledward can recall his excitement when he was asked to play along with the ukulele. As he grew he played in several local bands and...
Alan Kay has always had a love for music and in fact often found himself thinking in terms of a musician when he was designing computers and computer code. Alan is a computer science pioneer who spent a decade at the famed Xerox PARC helping to design and engineer personal computers, computer code...
Connie Czerwinski was the president of Cerwin-Vega, the company her father established in 1954 and worked with her father and the team he assembled, which provided many innovations in pro audio. Among the products the company became known for were speakers, the world's first solid-state "...
Les Harrison is the president of Hollywood Sound Systems in Hollywood, California. The company provides sound system and designs both to purchase and to rent and has been an innovator in the field since 1960. The company has provided systems for recording studios, the film industry and for...