Pianos
Mark Dunkley is the president of Dunkley Music Inc. in Boise, Idaho. In fact this is just one of three locations that are situated along southern Idaho. Mark's parents opened the first location in downtown Boise, where Mark remembers going to as a small child. After earning a business degree and...
Craig Schertz worked for Byerly Music in Peoria, Illinois and saw an opportunity to purchased two of the company’s ten locations when his boss and the current owner, Loren Zimmerman, was ready to retire. The stores continued to grow throughout the 1970s and 80s and when Craig decided to sell the...
Loren Zimmerman owned Byerly Music in Peoria, Illinois during the 1970s and 80s and is credited for being among the first music retailers to have locations in shopping malls. When he purchased the company from his father-in-law, Eldred Byerly (who served as President of the NAMM Board from 1963-...
Andrew Schertz runs Schertz MusiCenteR in Bloomington, Illinois, with this father Randy. Andrew's uncle, Craig, once owned Byerly Music, which had locations throughout Centeral Illinois. Andrew grew up with the music business all around him and even as a boy sweeping up the store and pricing...
Scott Summerhays was the President of the company his parents established in Salt Lake City back in 1936. Scott and his brother Briant worked together to grow the family business and eventually split the company into separate entities, both based in Utah. Scott had been a key player within NASMD...
Ellis Marsalis had a firm idea how to bring out the best music in people, even before his famous sons were born. His understanding of music theory and notation became the cornerstone of his own career as a musician and that of an unofficial music teacher. Just a few years after Hurricane Katrina...
Allen Toussaint represented one of the quintessential New Orleans sounds. Toussaint’s compositions and songs seamlessly blend blues, jazz, ragtime, R&B, and funk to create an amalgam that is unique and readily identifiable to New Orleans. Starting on piano in the 1940s and initially influenced...
Dwight Clements was working at Sears while playing music at night and on the weekends. While visiting a local store in New Orleans, Mitchell’s Music, Dwight asked the owner if there were any openings. Bill Mitchell told Dwight he could start the next week. It was a dream for Dwight who remained...
John Wright Jr. grew up in the piano business. His father and his uncle, Dan Hall, formed the Hall Piano Company in 1958. The store is currently located right on David Drive in Metairie, Louisiana, not too far from the first location, which John recalled running around in as a small child. Like...
Dan Hall was the founder of Hall Piano Company, located on David Drive in Metairie, Louisiana. The store was opened in 1958 just after Dan had moved from Beaumont, Texas, where he began his career as a piano retailer. His interesting story in the music industry began by a chance meeting with his...