Organs
Paul Calvin feels that his experience as a music retailer, including several years with Schmitt Music in Minnesota, has been helpful in his role as Vice President and General Manager of the Keyboard Division of Yamaha. Having a background in retail plays an important part in working with music...
Mel Wisniewski gave music lessons in a small music store in upstate Wisconsin and soon discovered he was interested in the idea of owning his own store. Not wanting to compete with his friend, Mel and his brother, Joe, moved to Southern Illinois where they established Wisniewski Brother’s Music in...
Don Middleton taught music lessons around town before working for Billy Hill at Hill’s Music in 1967. A few months later Mr. Hill announced his retirement and asked Don if he wanted to buy the store. With a small loan, which Don paid off in just over a year, he purchased the store. By 1970, he had...
Stan Lindenbaum grew up in Brooklyn and developed many thoughts and ideas about selling. While working for several different industries during his career, Stan studied the idea of incentive marketing, a concept that worked out well for him in his years in the music industry. He worked for the...
Teresa Leithold began teaching music in 1956 and conducted her last lesson just ten days before she passed away at the age of 87 on February 13, 2019. Music was her passion! While her husband ran the family music store in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Mrs. Leithold created the music lesson program for the...
Abbie Leithold-Gerzema is the co-owner of Leithold Music in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Abbie and her brother also share management duties in the store that their great-grandfather established in 1888. Abbie graduated from Drake University with a music degree in Pipe Organ and Music Business. In the...
Roger Leithold recalled moving into the historic building where Leithold Music is located on Fourth Street in La Crosse, Wisconsin during his NAMM Oral History interview. The building was originally a furniture store created in 1889. When the Leithold's moved their store into the building in 1964...
Keith Emerson was the British rocker who in the early 1970s helped define live performances on electronic musical instruments such as the modular Moog. He gained fame as a musical composer and clever keyboardist for The Nice before forming Emerson, Lake & Palmer and recording a string of hits...
Jay Valle began working in the organ industry in the 1950s and has witnessed some rather amazing changes. He was part of the organ boom of the 1960s and 70s that brought the instrument into shopping malls as an impulse item. Jay has watched the change in technology, which has greatly benefited the...
Shenae Wilson loves providing a musical instrument in the lives of the young children who come into her store. She feels blessed that she and her husband work so closely with local churches and that they play a role in the worship music created in their customer churches. As founders of Keyboard...