Organs
Akio Hiyoshi was on the engineering team at Yamaha in 1959 that designed the Electone Organ, which brought the small piano manufacturer into the electronic musical instrument market, where they would become dominant for decades. The team also worked on the Clavinova, the CS 80 (Yamaha's last...
Mitsuo Kasahara served as the first president of Yamaha Corporation of America after setting up the branch office in Southern California in 1961. Three years earlier he established the first Yamaha office in Mexico as well! These were the first branches in North America, which led to a period of...
Keith Beckingham recalls watching his father, a church organist, playing the piano at home and then sitting down and copying the music he heard. He grew up fascinated by the piano and organ and played throughout his school years. A job at Boosey and Hawkes, London as a Hammond Organ demonstrator...
Dan Rodowicz was encouraged at an early age to play music. His parents arranged piano lessons, which led to trombone, which was the instrument of his beloved uncle. Dan was influenced by the music around him growing up in Philadelphia, which inspired him to play the organ. In 1976 he won a local...
Lori Frazer’s mother taught piano and organ, which was the foundation for her own passion for music. When Lori was a small child, her mother purchased a piano for the home, which later would serve Lori for her own training. Like many people in Northern California in the 1950s and 60s, Lori and...
Tim Laskey founded the Wyman Piano Company. After a long and successful career with some of the top names in the music industry, such as Wurlitzer and Baldwin, Tim wanted to introduce a new line of pianos to the market. The Wyman instruments are manufactured with state of the art advances in Asia...
Bob Rosenthal began his career in the music business working with Curt Carter and Bob Hill in San Diego. The Organ Exchange was the learning grounds for Bob and many other salesmen who went on to form their own stores around the country. Bob later worked for Accent Music in Arcadia before helping...
Carter Schuld's father purchased an accordion for him when he was just four years old. Thanks to church, Carter took a liking to the organ, which his father noticed and purchased a home organ when Carter was just seven. He became more interested as television shows like Lawrence Welk fuelled the...
John Riley grew up playing music and earned a business degree in Boston. He applied for a job at the Wurlitzer retail store and was hired by a man named Bob Fletcher. When Bob moved to Florida to open a Lowrey Organ retail store, John joined him. Bob later established the Fletcher Music Center...
Bernie Capicchiano was coached from the Accounting world to manage a new music retail store for the Brash Group in Australia in 1973.His long career in the industry includes a strong relationship with the Hammond-Suzuki Company as well as Johannus Organs, Schimmel, Hailun and Bernstein Pianos....