Join Us in Honoring Mr. Kakehashi’s GRAMMY® Presentation During the Live Special Merit Awards Webcast

Industry , , 1 Comment

kakehashi_smRoland’s founder, Mr. Ikutaro Kakehashi, will be honored with a Technical GRAMMY® Award along with Dave Smith, president of Sequential Circuits, for their role in developing MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology. The GRAMMY® will be presented during the Special Merit Awards on Saturday, February 9, from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. PST. Please join us at www.grammy.com/live for the live webcast. This award is presented to those who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field and is part of the world famous ceremony celebrating the music industry.

Back in 1983, Roland’s Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith of Sequential unveiled MIDI, a standard that motivated the cooperation of an entire industry and propelled music technology into a new and exciting era. An inescapable new technology was born when two electronic keyboards from different manufacturers were connected, enabling them to “talk” to one another using the new communication standard. The announcement revolutionized the music world and thirty years on MIDI is ubiquitous in the musical instruments industry, and is a standard feature on virtually every electronic music product.

Reflecting on the announcement, Mr. Kakehashi commented:

“It’s already been 30 years since the debut of MIDI protocol in 1983, but it seems to me that those years have passed so quickly. Electronic musical instruments have become very popular all over the world through this time, and it is my great pleasure that MIDI played a significant role in their prevalence. This year’s Technical GRAMMY Award is the result of the cooperation by the companies who worked towards the same dream – growth of electronic musical instruments. I would like to share this acknowledgement with Mr. Tadao Kikumoto, former R&D manager of Roland Corporation, the engineering staff and all who were involved in creating and designing the MIDI concept and system.”

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