Selmer Receives NAMM Lifetime Achievement Award

Betty Heywood, NAMM director of International Affairs; Joe Lamond, NAMM CEO and president; Patrick Selmer, Brigitte Selmer, Jerome Selmer.

Patrick Selmer has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from NAMM. As president of French saxophone maker Henri Selmer Paris since 1998, Patrick Selmer, leads the brand with his cousins Brigitte and Jerome Selmer. He is the fourth generation of Selmers to run the business founded by his great-grandfather in 1885.

Selmer started working in the business at an early age, beginning with a residency in Elkhart, Indiana, where he was introduced to many key players in the brass industry. It was there that he began building lifelong friendships and lasting business relationships.

Selmer, who is also president of the French music association Chambre Syndicate de la Facture Instrumentale, was instrumental in starting Orchestre à l’école. This program that reinstates ensemble music making in French state schools grew over the last decade from one school orchestra to nearly 750. Orchestre à l’école is now supported by the French Ministry of Education.