Phil Leader

Philip Leader is a freelance content programmer for electronic musical instruments, with a background in piano, organ and keyboard sales, following in the footsteps of his dad Alec Leader, who was a Concert Artist for Lowrey, Thomas, Hammond, Kimball and Roland, through the 70s and 80s. Alec had been in the Music Trade since the 1950s, and through him Phil got to know many of the corner stones of the business in the UK at that time, including NAMM’s own Dennis Houlihan, who was then President of Lowrey Europe. Phil taught himself to play in his early teens, his background as a player including demonstrating for an Italian organ company in the 1970s (while still at school) and recording for the BBC numerous times from the age of 17. Phil worked in music retail in the UK for 5 years, subsequently being employed by Panasonic UK as an Area Sales Manager for Technics Musical Instruments. In 1985 while still an ASM, Phil founded the international Musician Team for Technics Japan with Hermund Tronvik (Norway), later joined by Rocco Ferrante(USA), Lutz Deterra (Germany) and Chris Halon (USA). Phil worked in Technics product development for the next 20 years, including living in Japan from 1995 to 1999. In 1999 Phil left employment at Panasonic and started All Right Music as a consultancy company to the Technics factory. During his time in Japan Phil met his now wife Yoko, who was then a software engineer at Technics. Since the brand was ended in 2004, Phil has worked for major keyboard manufacturers as a freelance content programmer providing advice on UI, MIDI Data, Accompaniment Styles and Sound Data from planning and producing sampling session through to final voicing.