Oral History - all
Birth Date: March 23, 1926
Deceased Date: January 9, 2016
Morty Manus and his lovely wife Iris were the driving force behind the Alfred Music Publishing Company for over 50 years, when their sons took over the operations of the company. During that time Morty’s guitar method books helped change the face of the publishing industry and were an enormous... more
Birth Date: March 20, 1930
Deceased Date: September 11, 2011
Kurt Lutz was a well-regarded German luthier who, along with many other instrument makers, settled in Bubenreuth, Germany following World War II. Mr. Lutz provided a first-hand account of the era by explaining that the city council created a poster seeking to find instrument makers displaced by the... more
Alfred Loib was a banker in Germany before he opened a small music store and fell in love with the industry. His passion for playing music was equaled by helping other musicians find the products they sought to advance their playing. With his background in banking and his love of music and the... more
Birth Date: February 19, 1923
Deceased Date: June 18, 2012
Jack K. Lewis served as President and COO for the Conn Organ Company after years of serving as it's Manager of Marketing Administration, General Sales Manager, Director of Marketing and Senior Corporate Executive. Jack was involved with Conn Organ during the great home market boom of the 1960s and... more
Tony Leonard is the president of Playground Music, a Florida-based music store his father established in 1961. With a strong focus on school music and print, Tony has continued with many of the key elements his father developed as the store’s philosphy, namely customer service. Tony has also played... more
Uli Kurtinat loved playing the guitar and wanted to be a rock star! He later worked for the Hoyer Guitar Company and began making his own guitars as well as working in retail stores as a luthier and repairman. It was there that the owner discovered Uli had a talent for selling musical instruments.... more
Birth Date: June 15, 1927
Deceased Date: March 8, 2018
Bob Kranendonk sang for the choral group, the Pennsylvanians led by Fred Waring. Bob’s father also sang for the group and in fact together both men had a hit and appeared on the cover of the sheet music for the song “The Happy Wanderer.” When not touring or recording with the group, Bob worked in... more
Dirk Kommer grew up close to Hohner, where he began his industry career as an apprentice in 1956. Over the years his dedication and passion for the products resulted in advances in duties. He was transferred to South Africa and back to Europe where he became the director of Hohner in London. When... more
Christoph Kemper blended his love of music with his love of computer programming as early as 1986 when he put his Commodore 64 to use coding for musical sounds. Kemper formed Access Music Electronics in the late 1990s just after rolling out its first product, the Access Virus series A. The Virus... more
Birth Date: November 16, 1924
Deceased Date: August 27, 2015
Ed Hendricks always enjoyed selling. After serving heroically in World War II, he worked in several Chicago-area department stores before being hired by Don Broman to work for Lyon & Healy’s retail store. In the early 1970s he decided to open his own piano store, which is located in Downers... more
Walter Hoyer took over the guitar production shop that his great grandfather had started and for which his father, Arnold Hoyer, made famous during the late 1940s and 50s. Arnold passed away in 1967 leaving Walter to take over the business. He focused on building his father’s designs as well as... more
Birth Date: August 6, 1946
Deceased Date: April 16, 2017
Allan Holdsworth was the influential electric guitarist who played a vital role within the music products industry as both an endorser and instrument designer. Allan recorded 12 well-received albums, toured and performed with the likes of Tony Williams and Jean-Luc Ponty and composed a string of... more
Birth Date: March 11, 1939
Deceased Date: July 14, 2017
Michael Heuser recounted his early meetings with Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi, the founder of Roland Corporation during his NAMM interview. The two men worked on product ideas as well as the goal of creating a branch of Roland in Switzerland. Michael headed the efforts as president of Roland Switzerland... more
Birth Date: November 18, 1927
Deceased Date: February 15, 2015
Neil Hauser took over the Allen & Heath business in the late 1960s at a time when a group of young engineers had an idea for a new product. The engineers, headed by Andy Bereza, created a small mixing board that could be used on the road as well as in the home. This new Portastudio... more
Richard Harrison owns and operates several music retail stores in the United Kingdom including well-known stores on Denmark Street. The street in London is often called the English Tin Pan Alley with shop after shop offering guitars, basses, drums, saxophones, sheet music and so much more. The best... more
Birth Date: July 5, 1928
Deceased Date: April 11, 2015
Gerold Hannabach was born in Schönbach, Czechoslovakia into a family with a long tradition in the building of music instruments. In 1948 he did his apprenticeship at the guitar manufacturer, Arnold Hoyer in Bubenreuth near Nürnberg and opened a workshop for fine classical guitars for resale in 1953... more
Reiner Hammerl is the son of Josef Hammerl, who in 1938 opened a drugstore in Germany. Among the products he created himself were natural wood varnishes and stains that soon became well used by violin makers. When Reiner joined the company in 1954, the product line was well established as a leading... more
CK Gottschalk is the president of the music store in Michigan that his parents established in 1936, the same year they married. They expanded their business just before CK was born and later moved the business to central California. CK studied music and taught math while his mother ran the store... more
Philip Gamlin took over the business his parents formed back in 1960. Gamlin Music Center is located in Cardiff, Wales and continues to be, as it was in the beginning, a full line music store. Philip brought his own passion for guitars into the business and built up the combo product lines over... more
Maureen Gamlin opened a music store with her husband in the coastal city of Cardiff in Wales. Gamlin Music was first opened in the late 1950s and was built as a family-oriented business with a strong focus on customer service. Mr. and Mrs. Gamlin’s son, Philip, joined the store and proudly... more