Yamaha Corporation of Japan

Takashi “Hagi” Hagiwara has been called the “godfather of Yamaha drums” as the unofficial ambassador of the company’s percussive products around the world.  His father was a silversmith in Tokyo, a profession he was thought to continue, however he decided to take a part time job as a teenager in a...
 Takehiko Akaboshi, the legendary Japanese music therapist and founder of the world renowned Japan Music Volunteer Association, began his career as a popular singer who recorded traditional and new folk songs as early as the 1950s.  While singing around the country he began seeing the benefits of...
Andrew Kemble’s grandfather established the Kemble Piano Company and started a family tradition that Andrew carries on today. The pianos became an important product within the European market and the company was respected for conveying family values not only in their interviews but in their...
Karl Hirano was an electronic engineer for Yamaha in Japan during the great MIDI boom of the early 1980s. In fact, Karl was a member of the team that gathered at the 1983 NAMM Show to discuss the MIDI spec and agree on the protocol and how MIDI would be engineered into the vast number of new...
Dr. John Chowning is known throughout the world for his discovery of FM sound synthesis, which, when used in the context of electronic musical instruments, provided an alternative to the way synthesized music was being created. The technology was first used with great success in the Yamaha DX7,...

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