Oral History - all
Sandy Schroeder speaks with fond memories of his years in the music industry, most notably his current career at Shure, “Most folks don’t know that although Shure has been around for 80 years, we have only had three presidents, including our first Mr. Shure and our current president, Sandy LaMantia... more
Nikolaus Schimmel served as president for his family’s piano company for several decades. The German based Schimmel Piano Company has been building fine instruments for over one hundred years and under Nikolaus’ leadership the company expanded its export business, becoming a well-known brand of... more
Hannes Schimmel-Vogel is the president of the German based Schimmel Piano Company. He took over the role when his father-in-law, Nikolaus Schimmel, retired. At the time of his first NAMM interview, Hannes was working closely with Nikolaus to learn the trade and meet many of the dealers and... more
Elianne Schiedmayer proudly serves as the CEO of the Schiedmayer company. Since 1735 Schiedmayer has been at the service of music, building keyboard instruments of the highest craft. In 1809 the company settled in Stuttgart, Germany, and quickly gained worldwide reputation for its pianos and... more
Robert Saied took great inspiration from his father, James. Robert’s father formed the Saied Music Company in Tulsa, OK in 1946 after serving as a band director in various schools in the area. Robert helped expand the store to several locations as well as participate in music industry organizations... more
Birth Date: December 16, 1933
Deceased Date: August 2, 2013
Ron Sadler’s great grandfather settled in Aurora, Illinois, outside of Chicago, to establish Sadler Piano. Over the next 123 years, the company has faced some unique times and made an impact on the music industry. During the Great Depression, Ron’s grandfather discontinued manufacturing pianos to... more
Marcus Ryle began his career in the industry as an engineer for Oberheim while he was still a teenager. In those pre MIDI days, Marcus designed a series of sound controllers as well as providing several modifications to the company’s synthesizers. He later co-founded Fast Forward in 1985 with... more
Birth Date: September 3, 1929
Deceased Date: April 9, 2019
Harry Rosenbloom was the founder of Medley Music and one of the true pioneers of import relations with the Japanese beginning in the late 1950s. He developed and maintained key partnerships with the Japanese suppliers and was one of the first advocates for better trade relations between the United... more
Mike Rosen is a professor of percussion at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio. Over the years Mike has been very active with the Percussive Arts Society and has contributed regularly to the organization’s newsletter. Mike was the principal percussionist with the Milwaukee Symphony... more
Lloyd Robbins became executive vice-president of the Rodgers Instruments Corporation in 1997. Rodgers is part of the Roland Corporation and is dedicated to creating its unique and successful line of church and home organs. The company, which is based in Portland, Oregon, was formed in 1958. Over... more
George Quinlan Jr. began working in the store his father established before he can remember, sweeping up on weekends and helping with band rental season in the fall. George worked in every position within the store to learn first hand all he could about the business. He said he also did a lot of... more
O. P. Prahladka is the Chairman of Hitachi KK Manufacturing Company in Kolkata, India, and has played an important role in the development of the music products industry within his country. Hitachi provides handcrafted products made of jute, wood, horn, bone, shell, metal and other natural... more
Birth Date: December 17, 1928
Deceased Date: March 31, 2019
Joyce Porras was hired to work at Reynald’s Music Store for two weeks in 1946, to help with the Christmas holiday rush. She continued to work for the company until it was sold in the 1980s. In fact, she continued to work for Reynald’s even after it was sold because she and her husband are the... more
Birth Date: December 25, 1929
Deceased Date: July 16, 2015
William Petersen served as president of Selmer Corporation from 1975-1990 during a time of great growth. Bill took over as the head of the renowned band instrument company after the retirement of his old boss and industry icon, Charlie Bickel. Under Bill’s direction the company acquired Ludwig... more
Allan Pearlman grew up in Queens New York and taught at a local high school after college before working in the music industry. In 1975, Sid Hack, hired Allan as a sales rep for Unicord, the same company his father, Ben, worked for 31 years. Allen loved the industry and continued to work for the... more
Birth Date: June 7, 1925
Deceased Date: January 5, 2019
Alan R. Pearlman was nicknamed “ARP” as a kid growing up in New York City, so it seemed the perfect name for a company when he was later designing electronic musical instruments. The first instrument created by Alan was the modular synthesizer known as the ARP 2500. The monophonic product was... more
Roger Palmateer met his soon-to-be wife just years after she purchased the Fullerton Music Center in Southern California. Mo and Roger have become a vital part of the Fullerton music culture with a well-respected store, a performance area, music lessons and great customer care. Roger focuses on... more
Birth Date: July 31, 1926
Deceased Date: February 12, 2021
Rupert Neve’s long and historic career in audio provided recording engineers with innovative products for more than 70 years. His mixing consoles, with their unique designs and groundbreaking technology, have become mainstays of the recording industry. His name is hallowed among recording engineers... more
George Massenburg has been the recording engineer on countless successful albums during his long and varied career, but may be best known for changing the way the music products industry looked at pro-audio gear with his 1972 paper on the parametric equalizer. Parametric equalizer, also known as EQ... more
Birth Date: March 7, 1939
Deceased Date: February 21, 2020
James McDonald was known simply as Boom Boom to his NAMM family. Following in the footsteps of his father, Boom Boom’s career focused on the trade show industry and early on he became involved with the NAMM Show. Soon, he became a part of the organization’s annual events. Boom Boom was never shy... more