Music Manufacturing
Hiroo Okabe is the Director and Managing Executive Officer of Yamaha’s Musical Instrument Business Group. During his NAMM Oral History interview he provided the history of how Mr. Torakusu Yamaha began his career in the music industry by first repairing a reed organ and later, in 1900, introduced...
Shuji Ito began his career with Yamaha Corporation in 1965 and has since held a series of positions in Japan, the United States and in Europe including managing director and senior managing director. He served as president and representative director for Yamaha from 2000 until 2007. Mr. Ito has...
Manuel Velazquez was one of the greatest guitar luthiers of the last one hundred years. He was born in Puerto Rico in 1917 and handcrafted his first classical guitar when he was still a teenager in 1929. He studied the art of guitar making from his older brother and the importance of woods from his...
Bill Tregoe drove over 1,300,000 miles over the 35 years that he was a sales rep for CG Conn and later King Musical Instruments. Along the way he made life long friends with many of the dealers and school directors he called on. As a trumpet student Bill took lessons at a Conn Music Store and later...
Brian Chung grew up surrounded by music and played piano at an early age. He earned an MBA and worked at ATT before returning to music. Brian wrote film scores using MIDI in the early 1980s, but injured his arm. As he wondered what he would do until his arm recovered, he applied and got a job at...
Lloyd Fillio grew up in the band instrument capital, Elkhart, Indiana. His father worked in the industry as did his uncle and cousin (Ernie Kenaga who was also interviewed). It seemed natural for Lloyd to work in the industry. He worked for CG Conn for a short time before moving over to Selmer in...
Ernie Kenaga was hired by Charlie Bickel at the Selmer Company following the end of his military service during World War II. At the time, 1946, Selmer had 80 employees including factory and office workers. Ernie began his career in the purchasing department and filled several positions before...
Rollie Bunn worked at Taylor Music in Aberdeen, South Dakota, when he was growing up and in fact returned to the store to work full time after attending Northern State Teacher’s College. During his college years he was a part time band director, which he enjoyed, before returning to Taylor. Ten...
Larry Moody began his career in the music industry as a retailer working for Ziggy Coyle in Ohio. The store was owned by Ziggy, a past president of the NAMM Board of Directors, and Russell Hill. The retail experience was helpful to Larry, who was hired by Yamaha and later by the Gemeinhart Flute...
Emerson DeFord was a master craftsman who as a builder designed a number of flutes ranging from student models to professional instruments. As a businessman, he formed a number of well-branded companies including E. L. DeFord Flutes, the Picolo Company, Custom Woodwinds and Emerson Musical...