Music Retail
Rita Goldman sat right next to her future husband in high school and recalls with a smile how their friendship turned to a long and loving marriage. She also warmly recalls his passion for the piano business. Harry Goldman was the founder of Fields Piano in southern California, a store that...
Barbara Gensmer established herself as one of the top church organ dealers in the United States, having sold and installed over 1,200 units since the 1970s. She focused on Minnesota and Wisconsin, and stayed loyal to the Rodgers Instrument Company for most of her career. In 1991, when Rodgers...
Walter Glaßl is leading the Walter Geipel Company known for producing rosin for string instruments in Bubenreuth, now in the third generation. The company was founded 1908 by Walter Geipel in Kirchberg close to the town of Schönbach, historically a major center of violin making. Walter Glaßl’s...
Alessandro Onerati and his brother, Christiano, run the music store with their family name in Florence, Italy. The Onerati workshop was established in Florence in 1980, specializing in wind and percussion instrument repair, and soon becoming a central location for professional musicians and...
Cristiano Onerati remembers working closely with his father to learn the finer points of repairing musical instruments. He enjoyed the experience and wanted to make sure repairs remained a part of his daily routine in the family music store even after he and his brother took over upon their father...
Kathy Ford grew up singing in school plays and special programs. Her love of music was furthered years later when she teamed up with longtime piano technician Frank Baxter. Kathy helped Frank on the business side of his Piano World online store and services as well as their piano supplies website....
Frank Baxter is the proud founder of Piano World (PianoWorld.com). Having programed webpages in the early 1990s, Frank used his skill and his insight that the web would soon be growing, to create a platform for his business. As a piano technician, Frank found his online marketing very successful as...
Rick Peate recalled the story of how his family’s multi-generational music business began and developed. During his NAMM Oral History interview, Rick talked about his innovative grandfather, George Peate, who moved to Montreal from Utica, New York as a teenager and opened a music store in 1899....
Steve Held was involved in music retail beginning when he was a teenager working at the Music Corner in Waterloo, Iowa. He later worked for West Music in Iowa City for well over a decade and then had his own piano store with his business partner Jim Hall. In the early days, Steve was trained in the...
Marc Silber has had a series of music stores during his long and colorful career including Fretted Instruments, located in Greenwich Village, New York and Marc Silber’s Music in Berkeley, California. While he owned Fretted Instruments in the early 1960s, Marc sold a guitar to Bob Dylan, who hung...