OH Taxonomy
Dick Dolan is the president of QRS, the historic makers of player piano rolls. He purchased the company in the mid 1980s and ensured that QRS continue to innovative products in the electronic age. His passion for the player piano resulted in a line of creative products including video linked player...
Peter Giles, the founder and president of Giles Communications, celebrated 20 years in business at the 2007 NAMM Show. During his interview, Peter proudly recalled his work in promoting the benefits of music making. Over the years, he has worked closely with many industry companies. For 15 years...
George Westjohn was hired by Lowell Samuel to oversee the expansion of Mr. Samuel’s interests in the wholesale music business. Mr. Samuel, a former band director, started a music store in the 1940s and a decade later established Midco Music, a music wholesale business with a focus on band and...
Tony Acosta had a dream to make the world’s finest classical guitar strings. He began working nights to perfect his product and build relationships within the industry and slowly gathered the needed equipment. Several years later, when he quit his day job working for an airline, his friends...
Vinny Testa was the founder of Testa Communications, which he established in 1984 to provide the music products industry with such trade magazines as The Music & Sound Retailer and DJ Times. Vinny enjoyed pioneering new ways of connecting with his readers including being one of the first to...
Prescott Niles was the original bassist for the Knack. His driving licks can be heard on the classic recording of “My Sharona” and his strong rhythmic teaming with band drummer Bruce Gary has been the source of inspiration for a generation of garage bands the world over. Prescott endorsed several...
Helene La Faro has been asked countless times to recount the short but extremely influential musical career of her brother, jazz bassist Scott La Faro. In fact, she began collecting the notes of her many responses and compiled them into a book on Scott’s life. Nearly all jazz bass players can...
Ursula Seiler is president of the piano company formed by her late husband’s family. The Seiler Piano Company of Kitzinger, Germany has an extensive history of producing well-respected and innovative products. The family traditions continue within the company with Ursula’s daughter, Manuella,...
John Bowen was an engineer at Sequential Circuits during the early days of the synthesizer boom of the late 1970s. John worked with founder Dave Smith, who later went on to develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) specifications. John helped write the MIDI code and went on to design...
Gary Kilday took a chance on an old piano bench maker in 1988 that had fallen on hard times. Since that time the company, renamed GRK, has kept the tradition of customer service and quality product that traces back to the original business, the Manual Arts Furniture Corporation formed in 1915....