| Vic Firth | |
|---|---|
Vic Firth (2006) |
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| Background information | |
| Born | June 2, 1930 Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupations | Musician, business owner |
| Instruments | Percussion instruments, cornet, trombone, clarinet, piano |
| Years active | 1940s - Present |
| Website | VicFirth.com |
Vic Firth is an American musician and is the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a percussion stick and mallet manufacturing company that he started in 1963.[1] The company bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets.[2] Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company's products are manufactured in Newport, Maine.
On December 20, 2010, it was announced that Vic Firth, Inc. had merged with Avedis Zildjian Company.[3] According to the announcement, both companies will continue to run autonomously.[3]
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Vic Firth was born June 2, 1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts.[4] He was raised in Maine by parents Everett E. and Rosemary Firth. Son of a successful trumpet player, he started learning the cornet from the age of four, turning over to percussion at an older age, as well as learning to play the trombone, clarinet, piano, and studying music arrangement. When he reached high school, he was a full time percussionist, creating an 18-piece band at the age of 16. He played a variety of percussion instruments such as vibraphone, timpani and the drum set. Firth is now an accomplished percussionist with his own percussion corporation that produces sticks and mallets.
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Manufacturer of percussion sticks and mallets, salt and pepper mills, and rolling pins |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Number of locations | 2 Boston, Massachusetts (headquarters) Newport, Maine (manufacturing) |
| Key people | Vic Firth, Founder |
| Website | VicFirth.com |
The company began when Firth, who had been performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 12 years, was asked to perform pieces which he felt required a higher quality drumstick than those that were currently being manufactured. Firth decided to design a set of his own sticks.[1]
Firth hand-whittled the first sticks himself from bulkier sticks and sent these prototypes to a wood turner in Montreal. The two prototypes that he sent would become the SD1 and SD2, the first two models of sticks ever manufactured by the Vic Firth, Inc.. As Firth himself states: "It came out of necessity not of imagination or my ability to start a company." Although the sticks were initially intended for Firth's personal use, they gained popularity among his students and were eventually carried by retailers.
Today, the Vic Firth Company product line has grown from the SD1 and SD2 to approximately 300 products in its catalog, and the company manufactures 12 million sticks a year.[1]
The company's current range of products also includes a line of pepper mills, salt grinders, and rolling pins sold under the Vic Firth Gourmet brand.[5]