Vic Firth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
Vic Firth
Vic Firth cropped.jpg
Vic Firth in 2006
Background information
Birth name Everett Joseph Firth
Born June 2, 1930
Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died July 26, 2015 (aged 85)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation(s) Musician, business owner
Instruments Percussion instruments, drums, timpani
Years active 1946�2015
Website VicFirth.com
Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth[1] (June 2, 1930 � July 26, 2015) was an American
musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company
that makes percussion sticks and mallets.[2]

Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the company bills

itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drumsticks and mallets, which are
made in Newport, Maine.[3] In 2010, the company merged with Avedis Zildjian
Company; officials said at the time that the companies would continue to run
independently.[4]

Vic Firth was born June 2, 1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts.[5] He was raised in
Sanford, Maine by parents Everett E. and Rosemary Firth, where he graduated from
Sanford High School.[6] Son of a successful trumpet player, he started learning the
cornet at age four, turning later to percussion, trombone, clarinet, piano, and
music arrangement. When he reached high school, he was a full-time percussionist,
and created an 18-piece band at age 16. He played a variety of percussion
instruments such as vibraphone, timpani and the drum set. He held a Bachelor's
degree, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Music from New England Conservatory in
Boston.

Firth was the principal timpanist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1956 to
2002. He was the orchestra's youngest member when music director Charles Munch
hired him as a percussionist in 1952.[7]

Firth died at the age of 85 on July 26, 2015, at his home in Boston, Massachusetts.
[8]

Contents
1 Vic Firth Company
2 See also
3 References
4 External links
Vic Firth Company
Vic Firth Company
Vic Firth logo.png
Type
Private
Industry Manufacturer of percussion sticks and mallets, salt and pepper mills,
and rolling pins
Founded 1963; 56 years ago
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.[2]

Firth hand-whittled the first sticks himself from bulkier sticks and sent these
prototypes to a wood turner in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The two prototypes that he
sent would become the SD1 and SD2, the first two models of sticks manufactured by
Vic Firth, Inc. Firth said, "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.

As of 2012, the company offered about 300 products, and made 12 million sticks a
year.[2] The company also produced a line of pepper mills, salt grinders, and
rolling pins sold under the Vic Firth Gourmet brand for many years until those
interests were sold to Maine Wood Concepts of New Vineyard, Maine in 2012 and re-
branded under the name Fletchers' Mill.[9]