Music Retail
Hiro Miyaji is the president of Miyaji Music, which opened in 1917 in Japan. He later expanded the wholesale business his grandfather started to include retailing. The company began providing wood instrument accessories such as violin bows. Miyaji Music had been distributing their products all...
Tadahiro Sato loved music and baseball! In fact after playing baseball for many years in his youth, he joined the music industry while playing baseball all along. His sister's husband established Star Music in Japan in 1950, where Tadahiro began working four years later. He and his brother-in-...
Ken Taniguchi runs the store his father opened in 1936 in Ochanomizu, Japan. The store started as a repair shop for accordions in the years before World War II. When US soldiers came in for repairs on all manner of instruments, the shop developed a strong reputation and soon expanded. Ken came...
Paul Campion developed a rich passion for opera and classical music as a youngster. He later wrote about singing and music that has been very meaningful to him throughout his life. While a fan and an expert of music, Paul also worked in the music industry as his profession. Paul played an active...
Anthony Macari is the Managing Director of the music shop in London, England named by his father. Macari’s Musical Instruments first opened in 1958 and was established by Joe and Larry Macari. Anthony’s father, Joe, played a key role in the growth of the shop, which today has two locations (one...
Paula Simmons wanted to create a shop where good quality instruments could be accessible to all those who came in the store. As a teacher, Paula was very interested in providing lessons for students of all ages. She tied both needs together when she and her partner, Kevin Smith,opened The Violin...
Genett Gamber was passionate about music making from a very young age. She recalls her mother arranged to have a piano teacher come to the house and being so excited about learning as much as she could. That desire and passion only grew over time and by the time she graduated from college; she...
Art Hedley and his brother, Kevin, caught the music bug at the time of the British Invasion of the 1960s. They both played in bands and enjoyed witnessing the role music made in bringing enjoyment to people's lives. After working for Radio Shack and getting involved with retail, Art realized...
Kevin Hedley proudly recalled the inspiration behind the name of his store, Uncle Ike's Music, which he opened with his brother, Art, in Iowa. Both were encouraged in music and in business by their friend Ike, not an uncle to them, but they loved the use of the word and thus the name was born. The...
Paul McGill is a luthier’s luthier. He wanted to create a tool that would allow others to express themselves and to create music that could be enjoyed by many people he may never meet or even know about. He was trained by Charles Fox in the late 1970s and found that he was able to put his passion...