Oral History - all
Reiff Lorenz grew up in the music publishing business and, like his father and grandfather, Reiff is happy and proud to carry on the family tradition. The company was established back in 1890 with a focus on choral, keyboard, hand-bell, and instrumental music in support of church worship programs... more
Ed Stasium, the producer and engineer, started out his career in the music industry performing with the Band Brandywine in the early 70’s. He engineered and produced records for The Ramones, engineered the Talking Heads as well as recordings for more than 200 bands. His years working at the... more
Nedra Pedersen grew up playing French horn and studying all areas of music. She landed a job in the publishing side of Disney and worked with Hal Leonard on several projects including The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. In the year 2000, she began working full time with her husband in... more
John Pedersen, the founder of Pedersen's Band & Orchestra in Burbank, California, began his career with a small instrument repair shop. The store, which began in the early 1970s, continued to grow even during the 17 years he spent working for the Los Angeles Unified School District repairing... more
Mitch Holder is among the legendary Los Angeles recording studio musicians known for playing all styles of music. As a well-respected guitarist, Mitch has played for nearly every studio and every composer in LA over the last forty years! He has worked on movies for conductors such as John... more
Ted Kraut loves teaching guitar! It's in his blood and very evident to anyone who talks to Ted for over a minute. His passion has inspired thousands of students over the years, first when he taught at Canoga Music and in more recent years when he bought the business and focused on forming its... more
Ray Scherr was hired by Wayne Mitchell, the founder of Guitar Center, to help strengthen and develop the small store. Ray added the culture and helped drive the growth of the company from the one location to the largest music store chain in the world. His passion for the music industry began when... more
Alexander Pietschmann is CEO of Adam Hall. His dad, a professional musician works for Adam Hall as a salesman. Alex joined the company in 2006 after studying law and business. During his student years he had organized parties and opened a music club in Frankfurt. Building on this background he took... more
David Kirby, originally from England, started out as a professional musician touring in Germany in the mid 70’s. Playing bass, he also took charge of fixing and upgrading the equipment as well as managing the band. After five years of touring the band broke up and David partnered with Adam Hall in... more
Markus Jahnel, COO of Adam Hall started out working for the company when he was 15 years old. After 30 years working closely with David Kirby he is now a partner since 2013 overseeing the day to day operations of the business. Markus talks about the early days of product development at Adam Hall... more
Siggi Jäger is a founder of Human Base. He specializes in hand crafting bass guitars. Sigge started making instruments in the mid 1980’s at Hoyer Guitars in Tennenlohe near Erlangen, Bavaria. There he specialized in making basses for the company and finished his apprenticeship with the master... more
Petra Woodfull-Harris recalls taking lessons on the recorder at the age of six, followed by the piano three years later. She enjoyed the idea of improving her skills and of expressing herself through music, which is a driving force in her passion today. As the sales and marketing manager for... more
John Tumpak is the author and music historian who has focused most of his writings on the golden age of swing during the Big Band Era of the 1930-40s. As a result, John has interviewed and written about many of the big names during that time as well as documenting some of the lesser known... more
Allan Rosenthal has served as NAMM’s Certified Public Accountant beginning in the 1980s, when the trade association moved its headquarters from Chicago to Carlsbad, California. Allan has played an active role in the growth and development of the organization, serving the board on many important... more
Don Langlie had a wonderful experience for ten years as a band director, mostly in North Dakota, which he enjoyed very much. When he applied for a job at Popplers Music in Grand Forks, Don took with him his interest in teaching, which has served him well as a music retailer. Don worked in the... more
Elliott Wessel likes to point out the fact that he has had five different positions at Schmitt Music at five different times during his career. He also conveys, as many others have, that Schmitt Music employees are much like a family. While Elliott worked at a time for Guitar Center in Dallas and... more
Bill Jones is the founder of Bill Jones Music in Knoxville Tennessee. The retailer started in 1973 with a focus on piano and organs, which was during the height of the organ boom. Over the years the store has developed to fit the changing needs of its customers and has become a full line music... more
Rachelle Gayer began playing her mother’s piano when she was six years old, not knowing that a method book in the bench beneath her was produced by the same publishing company where she would devote much of her career. Rachelle was always very interested in music, which led to her first job out of... more
Mike Fazio opened a small retail shop in St. Louis called Fazio's Frets & Friends. The year was 1978. Within a few months it was clear that he found his niche and before long the store became a lifeblood for area musicians as well as traveling performers. Mike was educated in retail business... more
Don Koller cut his teeth in the print music business at Wingert-Jones working for Frank Fendorf. While there, Don oversaw and controlled the inventory, picked the material for many of the store's well-received reading sessions and mailed choral music packets to some 50,000 Methodist churches at one... more