PLAY DRUMS HONORS INDUSTRY VETS DURING NAMM OPEN HOUSE P lay Drums held its annual Open House
at the Anaheim Hilton on Jan. 24 dur- ing The 2025 NAMM Show to celebrate its 30th anniversary with percussion industry leaders and introduce the newly redesigned PlayDrums.com website, which aims to inspire and educate a wider audience of drummers. “The highlight of our year is to host the Play Drums Open House gathering at the NAMM show in Anaheim,” said David Jewell, Play Drums board of directors chair. This year’s event honored industry vet- eran John Wittmann and drummer Rick Latham. During the event, PlayDrums. com announced it had added a drum lesson locator to help parents and students find local instructors and music stores offering lessons. In addition to maintaining an “all things drumming” destination, the website will build out its educational video library,
Play Drum’s honorees Rick Latham (third from left) and John Wittmann (fourth from left) are flanked by members and leadership of Play Drums.
making it a hub for drummers seeking to begin developing or expanding their skills. “Our members, who are the leading brands of the percussion industry, attend this event to help us celebrate the accomplishments of peer leaders in the segment, meet up-and- coming industry colleagues, and learn more about Play Drums and its programs and how to support them,” said Antoinette Follett,
PlayDrums executive director. “This market development nonprofit organization has been creating more drummers by putting sticks in hands for nearly 30 years.” PlayDrums.com Experience Drumming! initiatives include bucket drumming teacher training opportunities, grants for Experi- ence Drumming community events and more. {playdrums.com}
NAMM Announces New Board Members for 2025 D uring its annual meeting of members at The 2025 NAMM Show, NAMM of The Music People; and Hans Thomann, CEO of Thomann Musikhaus. From left: NAMM chair Tom Sumner, Thomann’s Hans Thomann, TMP’s Tom Tedesco, Martin Guitar’s Thomas Ripsam, Pecknel Music’s Jeremiah Manriquez, Day Violins’ Jenna Day, Hosa’s Mayumi Allison, Apogee’s Betty Bennett, Dietze Music House’s Tim Pratt and NAMM CEO John Mlynczak.
talented coalition of industry leaders that continue to volunteer their time to guide our organization into the future” said John Mlynczak, NAMM president and CEO. The new board members are Mayumi Allison, CEO of Hosa Technology; Betty Bennett, CEO and co-founder of Apogee; Jenna Day, owner of Day Violins; Jeremiah Manriquez, president, CEO and owner of Pecknel Music Co.; Tim Pratt, president and owner of Dietze Music House; Thomas Ripsam, president and CEO of C.F. Martin & Co.; Tom Tedesco, president and CEO
announced the eight newly elected board members who will be joining its Board of Directors. These new members will serve a three- year term through January 2028 and will provide oversight and support of NAMM’s vision, mission and objectives. NAMM’s board of directors consists of 24 directors elected by the NAMM membership, each serving three-year terms in slates of eight. “NAMM is eternally grateful to the
Tom Sumner, NAMM chair, thanked the outgoing board members during the annual meeting of members and lauded their ideas and expertise. They are Roger Hart (TKL Products Corp), DeDe Heid (Heid Music Company), Elizabeth Heidt (Gibson), Adam Levin (Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center), Lana Negrete (Santa Monica Music Center), Paul Tobias (Tobias Music), Ray Williams (Music Marketing) and Steve Zapf (Conn-Selmer). {namm.org}
36 I MUSIC INC. I APRIL 2025
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