Music Retail
Brian Schmidt opened up a small piano and organ retail store in Calgary, Canada, in 1973 with a strong focus on the Baldwin Products. He was just 21 years old at the time and benefited greatly from a number of mentors who helped him, several of whom were Baldwin employees. After Baldwin was sold...
Lauren Wallace was hired by the Baldwin Piano retail store in Cincinnati in 1997 as a salesperson. She had played piano as a young girl and took up playing again when her son was taking lessons. Her love of the Baldwin instruments put her in the store at the time there was an opening and Lauren...
Jack Shallat was a professional violin player who landed several gigs with traveling bands in the 1930s and 40s. During that time he met Buddy Rogers and both men opened separate music stores in and around Cincinnati in the early 1950s. In 1967 they decided to merge their businesses and work...
Janet Gratsch began working at Willis Music when she was 17 years old in the Choral Department. She remained with the store until she retired and even after her retirement she would be called by the staff and hummed a song for her to name, and she would. Janet was hired in 1940 and recalled with...
Elmer Reeder and his brother purchased a sawmill outside of Lansing, Michigan, right after World War II. It was during that time that Elmer became an expert in wood, an important part of his career years later. When his son, Jim, opened a piano shop and retail store called James Reeder Piano,...
James Reeder is the piano technician who formed James Reeder Piano in Lansing, Michigan, as both a repair and retail business. With a strong background in the restoration of pianos, Jim sought to hire top craftsmen to create the best service possible. Among those he hired was his father, who had...
Stanley Werbin opened a small guitar shop he named Elderly Instruments on July 5, 1972. The original location was in East Lansing, Michigan and focused on "used instruments". Within a few years Stan watched the growth and development of the vintage guitar market and provided a repair shop and...
Ed Strege is known within the band instrument repair world as “fast Eddie” for his speed at repair and short-cut tricks he has taught members of NAPBIRT for several decades. His classes on repair started as a service within his company and served as the only training program for band instrument...
Russell Thomas was a band director for over 34 years. During his teaching years he often felt frustrated that simple repairs would take weeks and often delay concerts or rehearsals. A local music store provided him an opportunity to learn simple repairs, which led to a passion that resulted in...
Denny Lawson began learning and playing instrumental music while in college. He soon found he had a great interest in playing music and switched his major to music education. While he was a band director, a music store had an opening on its repair bench and Denny took the job to learn basic...