OH Taxonomy
Reiko Suzuki discovered her passion for music at a young age as she watched her father and mother operate a company that manufactured harmonicas and other instruments. This coupled with her father, Manji Suzuki’s desire to spread the joy of music to children later served as her inspiration to...
Neal Preston recounted a special photograph he took while on tour with Led Zeppelin in the 1970s. The image captured Jimmy Page playing guitar as stage smoke was raising and the iconic musician looked right into Neal’s camera lens. It was one of a dozen stories Neal provided during his NAMM Oral...
Bobby Thrasher has his roots in fabrication and was able to merry that talent into a career in music by accepting a position as a stage hand managing hydraulics with Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Using that tour as a launching point, Bobby continued to excel within the industry eventually working on...
Kevin Brandon is the studio bass player known as "Brandino". While he was born in Southern California, his musical roots go back to New Orleans. When he was four, he met Louis Armstrong, which he feels changed the course of his life. Over the years, he toured with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and...
Takeomi Nishimura found his way to Suzuki Musical Instruments while studying engineering in college. Upon returning home from school one day a friend suggested he work for the company and the rest is history. Within the company, Takeomi has served a variety of roles including production control,...
Steve Dillon has a great appreciation and knowledge of vintage band and orchestra instruments. The first musician in the Dillon family can be documented back to the 1700s, thus the store’s slogan “Dillon Music: Bringing America Music since 1776". Steve became an expert on vintage instruments and...
Jun-Ichi Miki joined the Roland Corporation in 1977 right after graduating from university. After working in research of sound synthesis and analysis for electronic musical instruments, in 1994 he joined the Board of Directors. In 2013, Jun-ichi was named Roland’s new CEO and his background in...
Seiki Kato is the president of KORG, the Japan based electronics company that has created innovative musical products since his father first established the company in the 1970s. Seiki provided meaningful insight into the international growth of KORG as well as his philosophy moving forward as it...
Stephen Olsen grew up with a passion for business, so when he had an opportunity to join the family music store, he jumped! Blues Angel was established in 1997 by his step father Jim and mother Nan. The couple asked Stephen to join them in 2008 as the store was expanding. Stephen played a vital...
This video is of our annual NAMM Tribute, created in honor of our members and music industry friends who passed away in 2017 and early 2018. This Tribute was shown for the first time at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California in January 2018. All moving images within this video, indicate those who...