Violins
Ahmet Ediz grew up in Turkey and began playing the violin at an early age. He became a professional concert musician and traveled with several orchestras. Along the way he noticed a need to better care for his instrument, particularly regarding the wood. He noticed that even the instruments of...
Ivan Peykov grew up in the music business as his father formed a company to make traditional Bulgarian instruments. After attending college with a focus on engineering, Ivan returned to work with his father and helped manage the production of the manufacturing process for such instruments as...
Bonka Peykov has a great deal of respect for the process of making high quality musical instruments. When she joined her husband’s family business, she worked long and hard to learn each step in the process so that she could contribute to the areas she was needed most. Her dedication to both the...
Hans Jürgen Nebel is a fourth generation violin maker from Germany who decided that his skills and talents were best served as a repairman. He has rebuilt and restored violins ever since establishing his own business in 1957. From that time on Hans has become one of the true experts on violin...
Richard Keldsen is the president of Saga Music in San Francisco, California. His first musical inspiration was hearing Earl Scruggs playing Bluegrass banjo for the first time. After two years in the Peace Corps, Richard had the opportunity to open a music store called the Fifth String in San...
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...
Al Simpkins spent his career selling musical products. One of his former dealers was convinced Al could sell a block of ice to residents of the North Pole. His knowledge of the products and his attention to customer service were key elements in his success. He became an important part of his...
Won Jung Kim is the president of Shimro Musical Instruments Company in Seoul, South Korea. The company is a leader in manufacturing all levels of bowed instruments and in recent years has become a distributor in South Korea, carrying her brands as well as those supplied by the D’Addario & Co....
Charles Avsharian is the CEO of Shar Musical Products, which he established in 1962 along with his brother, Michael. The brothers toured for years as professional musicians and along with their father formed a small business to provide instruments and accessories to their friends and fellow...
Lou Capece began selling musical products in the 1960s and has since become one of the industry’s largest musical instrument wholesale distributors. One of the successes of the company has been the development of their self-branded instruments with names well known around the world today, such as...