Our mission is to celebrate the legacy of inventor, musician, entrepreneur and engineer Alan R. Pearlman, by making his innovative inventions publicly accessible, and inspiring future generations to imagine and create.

Meet the Board

Dina R. Alcalay Pearlman

Dina R. Alcalay Pearlman

Executive Director

Dina is the only child of Alan and Buena Pearlman and grew up with ARP Synthesizers as a backdrop for her childhood, traveling extensively and being exposed to innovative and cutting edge technology. In her early years she spent time playing in rock and roll bands, as well as dance and theater. For the past thirty years she has worked as a versatile visual arts and design professional, creative director, and educator. She has also worked extensively in photography, graphic and web design for several decades, and has a broad understanding of visual communications media.

In the last few years before his illness, Alan Pearlman started to re-examine the brave new world of synthesizers that exists today, many decades after his iconic and groundbreaking 12 years as the inventor and founder of ARP Synthesizers. During this time, he brought his daughter into the conversation. After his death in January 2019, Dina realized that the need of keeping his legacy and passion alive, and with the help and encouragement of many of his former colleagues as well as the wonderful Michelle Moog-Koussa, she started the Alan R. Pearlman Foundation and ARP Archives.

David Mash

David Mash

Chair

David Mash was senior vice president for innovation, strategy, and technology at Berklee. In previous roles at Berklee, Mash was the founding chair of the Music Synthesis Department (today known as Electronic Production and Design); Berklee’s assistant dean of curriculum for academic technology; vice president for information technology; and vice president for technology and education outreach.

As a leading authority on music technology and education, Mash has been featured on national and international media broadcasts such as 3-2-1-Contact, Newton‘s Apple, World Monitor, CBS Evening News, All Things Considered, and Voice of America. He has collaborated on product development with leaders in the multimedia and music industries such as Adobe, Avid, Roland, and Korg and many manufacturers of music technology products. Rolling Stone magazine has called Mash "the industry’s leading evangelist for the marriage of music and technology." In 1997, he was named an AppleMaster by Apple Computer for his contributions to the fields of music, technology, and education.

Gerson Rosenbloom

Gerson Rosenbloom

Interim Vice Chair

Rosenbloom’s extensive experience in the musical instrument industry covers a variety of managerial and growth-oriented roles. He most recently served as Vice President of Strategic Management at Sweetwater Sound, one of the fastest growing and most successful online instrument retailers in the USA. He is also a columnist at Music Inc. Magazine, and founder of Spectrum Strategies consultancy firm. Rosenbloom’s previous industry roles include President of Medley Music Corp., Managing Director for Wechter Guitars, and Chairman of the Board at NAMM.

“I am honored and thrilled to be joining the Board of the Alan R. Pearlman Foundation,” said Rosenbloom. “Alan, his company, and the superb people with whom he was surrounded, all had a huge impact on the course of my career in the music products industry. Now, I get the opportunity to give back to help ensure that future generations are given access to Alan’s incredible technologies so that their lives are similarly impacted and enriched.”

Richard Formidoni

Richard Formidoni

Board Member and Advisor

Richard is a music technology professional with a background in, and passion for, keyboards and synthesizers. Having spent 10 years with Korg and currently working with Casio, he is best known for his various instrument demonstration and tutorial videos, which have a combined total of well over 20 million views. His roles have encompassed product management, marketing, training, multi-instrumental performance and composition, synthesizer voicing, and recording/audio engineering.

Richard works with artists, instrument manufacturers, and retail dealers throughout the USA. In addition to assisting in the design/development/voicing of synthesizer and keyboard products, he also voices and programs synthesizers for international touring artists including Beyonce, Eminem, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Timberlake, Yanni, Steve Vai, Rob Thomas, Motionless in White, and others.

When not helping others make music, he play keyboards for an NYC-based band that combines elements of funk, rock, and soul.

Mary Lock

Mary Lock

Board Member and Treasurer

Mary Lock has worked in the electronic musical instrument industry in product service management and administration for ARP, Fender Rhodes Chroma R&D and Kurzweil. Involved in all aspects of the service department’s day-to-day activities, she provided technical support and assistance directly to customers, service centers, dealers and distributors. She maintained, established and provided training to domestic and international service facilities. She has worked closely with manufacturing, engineering, sales and marketing departments for new product launch campaigns, engineering updates and changes as well as general corporate operations. She has described her work as involving everything from counting hardware to being on stage during sound checks with artists like Stevie Wonder and Kenny Rogers. Mary is currently working primarily as a technical writer. She composes, illustrates and prepares technical service manuals, service procedures and user documentation for musical instruments and electronic devices.
(Mary seen here with Alan R. Pearlman at the Everything ARP Symposium in 2015 )

Chris Meyer

Chris Meyer

Board Member

As a teenager in the 70s, Chris Meyer took lessons on piano, bass, and modular synthesizers. He went on to write code and help design products for Sequential Circuits, Digidesign, Tom Oberheim, and Roland R&D where he was chief engineer. He is perhaps best known as the creator of Vector Synthesis.

Chris also taught synthesis at UCLA Extension, wrote numerous articles for Music Technology Magazine plus a column for Keyboard Magazine, and was technical chairman of the MIDI Manufacturers Association where he authored several additions to the spec including MIDI Time Code.
After a two-decade detour in the video and film industry, he recently returned to modular synthesis, creating videos, courses, and articles under the name Learning Modular, and co-authored the popular book Patch & Tweak. Proving that one who teaches can also “do”, most recently he has been focusing on composing and performing sweeping, emotional electronic music under the name Alias Zone which combines synthesizers, samplers, field recordings, and percussion instruments.

Collin Russell

Collin Russell

Board Member

Collin Russell is a composer, sound designer, and educator specializing in modular synthesis and through-composed electronic music. In addition to creating sound libraries and scoring music for films, Collin releases his own personal music in genres ranging from ambient to harsh noise. His process is rooted in the melding of traditional harmonic and rhythmic structures with organic modulations, bridging the gap between familiar and explorative sound.

Collin is an assistant professor of Electronic Production and Design at Berklee College of Music. His passion for teaching originated from his work as a technical writer in the music technology industry. Currently, Collin is a technical writer, product consultant, and service technician at Instruō Modular. His writing can also be found in the Bjooks publications, Synth Gems 1 and Inspire the Music – 50 Years of Roland History.

Andrew ‘Drew’ Schlesinger

Andrew ‘Drew’ Schlesinger

Board Member

Drew Schlesinger is a renowned professional sound designer who has been involved in creating patches for synthesizers, effects and software products beginning with the Casio CZ-101 in 1984. He’s developed internal presets for over two hundred devices from thirty different manufacturers including Roland, Korg, EMU, Kurzweil, Alesis, Sony, Yamaha, Eventide, Lexicon and Sound Toys among many others.

He’s recognized as one of the most prolific and accomplished sound programmers in the MI industry and has created seminal sounds and effects that include “Crystal Echoes” (Shimmer), the “Black Hole” reverb for Eventide and “Prophetic Steps” for Korg’s Prophecy synthesizer.

Drew was recently presented with the Golden Knob Lifetime Achievement Award at the Knobcon 2022 for his work in synth sound design and the contributions to the electronic music community. He’s also included in NAMM’s Oral History Series and is a frequent podcast guest. Drew also curates an anthology of synthesizer artists, composers and devices on his popular Instagram page.

Emeritus Board Members

Jennifer Hruska

Jennifer Hruska

Former Vice Chair

As a musician, technologist and business executive, Jennifer Hruska has focused her talents and energies towards designing, building, and using the best electronic musical instruments for today‘s artists. Jennifer’s early career was as a sound designer for music synthesizers at Kurzweil Music Systems, working for such industry greats as Ray Kurzweil, Bob Moog, Robert Chidlaw and Hal Chamberlain. Following, Jennifer founded and operated SONiVOX, an audio technology company that produced software midi synthesizers, virtual instruments and sample libraries for pro-audio software products and embedded consumer products. SONiVOX technology reached hundreds of millions of customers when its products were embedded in Android, Motorola, Samsung, Pantech and other global branded cellphones and tablets. In 2012 Jennifer sold SONiVOX to Jack O‘Donnell, owner and CEO of inMusic Brands. Here she set her entrepreneurial experience to the task of managing software engineering for the company’s iconic brands - Akai Professional, M-Audio, Alesis, AIR Music Technology and others. Jennifer left inMusic in 2016 to found Qubiq Audio which licenses its struQture audio platform to businesses needed a best-in-class software platform for companies selling virtual instruments, effects and content libraries. In 2018 Qubiq Audio launched the consumer music software brand 2getheraudio. 2getheraudio features an industry first business model where customers Pay-What-They-Want and half of their purchase goes to a charity of their choice.

In Memoriam

Don Lewis

Don Lewis

Board Member

Don Lewis (March 26, 1941 – November 6, 2022)

Don Lewis was a visionary who believed that music makes a difference in the world. As a child in Dayton, Ohio, music became Don’s "magic carpet" transporting him out of the projects into a world filled with possibilities of concerts, recordings, and collaborations. Don’s career in music led him to perform in a variety of venues such as Carnegie Hall, touring with the Beach Boys, playing concerts in European Cathedrals, jazz clubs, and school assemblies. Don’s music brought a message of hope, peace, and inspiration. In the studio Don worked with the likes of Quincy Jones, Sergio Mendez, Michael Jackson, Brothers Johnson, and Marvin Hamlisch. He also scored and produced music for television, film, and commercials. An electronic music pioneer, Don designed LEO (Live Electronic Orchestra) in 1974 and completed the project in 1977 with the help of Richard Bates. LEO and Don are credited by Ikutaro Kakehashi as being his "inspiration for MIDI.” With a passion for children and arts education, Don began a school assembly program Say "YES" to Music! in 1987. Throughout the years, Don encouraged and inspired thousands of children to include music in their lives and to pursue their dreams.

A feature-length documentary film, Don Lewis and The Live Electronic Orchestra, produced and directed by Ned Augustenborg, was released in February 2023 on PBS. The film covers Lewis’s life, career, relationships, and his struggles with systemic racism. It explores how Lewis, in the 1980s, was labeled as a "National Enemy" of the Musicians Union partly due to institutional fears regarding the technological advancements that Lewis embraced. In order to delve into the history of electronic music, it includes interviews with Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Ikutaro Kakehashi, John Chowning and Alan Kay.

In addition to the Board, the creation of this Foundation couldn’t have happened without the following people:

Buena Pearlman, Ruperto Ifil, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Michael Brigida, David Fredrick, Tom Piggot, Mark Marshall, Michael Bierylo, David Friend, David Baumann, Rod MacQuarrie, Dave Spiers, Mark Vail, Tony Gallagher, Vince Pupillo Jr , Vince Pupillo Sr, Lisa Bella Donna and others.

Thank you for your generous time, the biggest gift anyone could ever give.