MIDI Lifetime Achievement Awards 2025

The MIDI Association will present John Bowen, Karl Hirano, Tadao Kikumoto, Chris Meyer, Jeff Rona and Brian Vincik with MIDI Association Lifetime Achievement awards for their contributions to MIDI from 1983 to 1990.

John Bowen- John Bowen was a product specialist and sound designer at Sequential Circuits during the early days of the synthesizer boom of the late 1970s. John worked with Sequential founder Dave Smith and then with Karl Hirano and Dave at the Dave Smith Division of Yamaha and at Korg R&D San Jose. Brian Vincik and John were in charge of the dissemination of the MIDI specification around the world in the early chaotic days of MIDI before The MIDI Association was formed in 1985.

Karl Hirano (posthumous)- Karl worked for both Yamaha and Korg. At Yamaha he worked on the DX7 (one of the very first products to implement MIDI) and headed up communications between the Japanese MIDI organization and The MIDI Association in MIDI’s early years. Karl recommended adding grounding and status bytes to MIDI. He worked in San Jose with Yamaha’s Dave Smith division and then was “traded” to Korg when Dave Smith moved over to Korg R&D. 

Tadao Kikumoto- Tadao Kikumoto (菊本忠男, Kikumoto Tadao) was Roland’s senior managing director and head of its R&D center. He designed the TB-303 bass synthesizer and the TR-909 drum machine. He was also the chief engineer of the Roland TR-808 drum machine.

Chris Meyer was the first chair of the MIDI Association’s Technical Standard Board and worked at Sequential Circuits, Digidesign, Marion Systems (Tom Oberheim), and Roland R&D U.S. His work as the first TSB chair led to many important developments in MIDI including MIDI Time Code and the Sample Dump Standard. Today he runs the website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel LEARNING MODULAR, where he teaches others how to master modular synthesis.

Jeff Rona is an American composer for film. He was a member of Hans Zimmer’s MediaVentures. His credits include Sharkwater, Traffic, God of War III, Phantom and Veeram. Jeff Rona was the founder and past president of MMA, the MIDI Manufacturers Association (DBA The MIDI Association). Jeff has also been a judge in The MIDI Innovation Awards for several years. 

Brian Vincik- Brian formed the first MIDI user group called the International MIDI Association in 1983 which was the sole source for the MIDI specification 1.0 (outside of Japan) in those early years in MIDI’s development.