Kawai Musical Instrument Company
Don Mannino has always loved fixing things. He repaired bicycles as a kid and after earning a degree in music became an apprentice at a local music store learning the craft of piano repair. In 1980 he established his own piano shop and worked for local music stories tuning their floor models, which...
Les Deutsch is a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) scientist in the aerospace industry who holds several patents for electronic musical instruments. His father, Ralph Deutsch, invited the sound generator technology for the first digital organ. That instrument, produced by Allen Organ and first shown...
John Masson was front pumping organs during the great home organ boom of the 1970s. He opened Masson Organ Villa in 1975 demonstrating Baldwin Pianos and Kawai keyboards and organs. He later expanded into a shopping mall before renaming the store Masson Music. Along the way, John has been very...
John Blanch grew up learning all about solid customer service from his father, who owned a grocery store north of Sydney, Australia. Those lessons helped John during his career in the music industry, which began in retail and expanded into wholesaling. His fun stories about selling pianos in the...
Sean O'Shea began front pumping the organ during the big boom of home organs in the 1970s. His first gig was for a music store when he was just 14. He grew up in the business and worked for many of the top names in the piano industry. Sean had his own store for years and worked in the wholesale...
Sanjiro Kawamorita was drafted into the Japanese Army during World War II. He served under Shigeru Kawai who hired Kawamorita-San and other soldiers from his unit after the war. He remained with the piano manufacturer, based in Hamamatsu Japan until his retirement for a total of 53 years! Before...
John Allegrezza began working in the piano business in 1957 and soon discovered he had a real passion for the business and the people. In 1981 he opened his store, Allegrezza Pianos, in Ridgeland, Mississippi, just north of Jackson. Over the years he has worked with some of the biggest names in...
Hirotaka Kawai is the president of the Kawai Music Corporation in Japan and has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, the company's founder and his father, who expanded the company after World War II. Kawai-San has played a vital role in the development of factories both within Japan and in...
Brian Chung grew up surrounded by music and played piano at an early age. He earned an MBA and worked at ATT before returning to music. Brian wrote film scores using MIDI in the early 1980s, but injured his arm. As he wondered what he would do until his arm recovered, he applied and got a job at...
John Rajcic, a former educator joined the Kawai Company, becoming Vice President/General Manager of the world famous piano maker. John played a role in establishing Kawai Dealers across the country. John was instrumental in the design and development of the College Loan Program, which allowed...