Alan R. Pearlman's Life Archives - The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation

ARP@100: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Alan R. Pearlman

dddARP — Fri, 16 May 2025 18:37:55 +0000

Saturday, June 7 · 7 – 10pm EDT. Doors at 6:30pm

Join us in celebrating the centennial birthday of a true visionary, synthesizer pioneer Alan R. Pearlman, at the exclusive gala opening of the ARP@100 exhibition!

The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project (EMEAPP) and the Alan R. Pearlman Foundation proudly present this extraordinary exhibit at the new Museum of Music Technology, showcasing the groundbreaking work of Pearlman and his legendary ARP Synthesizers.

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Celebrating 100 Years of Alan R. Pearlman

dddARP — Fri, 16 May 2025 18:31:19 +0000

In celebration of the life and work of visionary synth pioneer Alan R. Pearlman, the Alan R. Pearlman Foundation will host an exclusive opening of the ARP@100 exhibition on the 100th anniversary of his birth, Saturday, June 7th. This fundraising event will take place at the Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project (EMEAPP) in their new Museum of Music Technology, showcasing the groundbreaking achievements of Pearlman and his legendary ARP Synthesizers.

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Sound on Sound Legacy Podcast

dddARP — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 18:35:41 +0000

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Alan R Pearlman Birthday Celebration

dddARP — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 05:00:37 +0000

The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation celebrated the birthday of its namesake and founder of ARP synthesizers, Alan R. Pearlman on June 7th.

Throughout the day, we posted many of our favorite ARP Live! interviews and performances, followed by a watch party at 5PM ET hosted by Dina Alcalay Pearlman-Ifil.

LINKS and Schedule

During the watch party premiere, veiwers were treated to a series of videos. If you joined from the beginning, each video automatically redirected to the next premiere. Check out the individual links and schedule :

MAIN WATCHPARY LINK
5:00 EDT
A recently-recovered TV demonstration from ARP’s very own Tom Piggot, featuring the ARP 2600, Odyssey, and other instruments (this time in vibrant 1970s color) YouTube premieres 5:00 EDT
5:35 EDT
CHANGE! A new interview with A Conversation with Piggott, co-author of the much-beloved “Learning Music with Synthesizers” YouTube Premiere 5:35 EDT (or continue watching from original link above)

6:10 EDT
An interview with the legendary Greg Phillinganes, the longtime keyboardist for Stevie Wonder, David Gilmour, Toto and Eric Clapton, as well as musical director for Michael Jackson YouTube Premier 6:10 (or continue watching from original link above.

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Alan R. Pearlman’s Birthday Lost ARP Tapes Premiere, and Fundraising Kick-Off

dddARP — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 13:27:11 +0000

Today is my father’s birthday

Alan R. Pearlman would have been 97 today! Because he was born in 1925, he remembered the George Washington Bridge being built, the Great Depression, was a World War II vet.. he worked on the early NASA projects, saw the first person on the moon. And he built one of the most famous synthesizers in the world.

With celebrating my father’s birthday we also recognize our future—the kids who love their STEM classes, the musicians who have aspirations to make music, or the filmmakers who wish to make soundtracks.

This summer we are trying to raise a minimum of $15,000 for the following projects:

ARPs for ALL – insurance, restoration and repair of instruments
ARPchives including scanning, digitizing and licensing rights to rare photos. See also: Google’s Music Makers and Machines!
Our first residency at ARPs for ALL (estimated $10,000 for housing, transportation and engineering assistance)
Grantwriter(s)

We will also be holding our Fall Synthposium and Fundraiser 2022: A Fifty Year ARP Odyssey!

READ the Synthposium Press Release

We hope you will consider making a tax deductible donation to The Alan R Pearlman Foundation

My father was a mentor. In his tradition, The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation is dedicated to preserving his legacy to inspire others, and to provide them with the tools to do so with our ARPs for ALL projects as well as our ARPchives that include

Hot off the Press!

This year we have located some lost ARP tapes premiering on YouTube later today (more coming later this summer) We have also located some rare photographs, but we have to purchase them, so this is part of our goals for this latest fundraiser.

Read the ‘Lost ARP Tapes’ Press Release

Join the Premiere at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 10pm UK, 11pm EU

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Remembering Alan R. Pearlman on Earth Day

dddARP — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 22:26:47 +0000

This past week I was lucky enough to be at my old stomping grounds; Commonwealth Avenue in Newton watching runners run by flowering trees on a coolish, but brilliant Spring day.. It was an event that I knew well, spending every April mid month (Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts) watching famous runners, unknowns, friends and —three times! — my father (Alan R. Pearlman) run the challenging 26.2 miles of the most famous marathon outside of Greece, the Boston Marathon.

Now, my father was NOT what I would call a typical outdoors type of guy. During family vacations when my mother and I would go to the pool or the beach, my father preferred to stay in the house or hotel room with a good book, grateful for the peace our absence would afford him. He was, however, an avid cyclist as a young man, spending weekends riding hundreds of miles with his beloved bicycle group.

When too many years of sitting behind a drafting table or workbench started to erode his health, and the anxieties of running businesses were taking a toll, my Dad became a long-distance runner, joining a dedicated group at the Cambridge YMCA who ran 10 miles on a slow day, and trained for the Boston Marathon. He ran by the Charles River and took this love to many cities as he ran road races with the idea of personal goals. Not family, not ARP Synthesizer, but just him and the world. Later we did do some runs together, and I have a fond memory of running with him Heartbreak Hill when I was in my mid twenties.

His interest in Mother Earth also took a more global view. He loved science fiction for its possibilities. He was, in every sense, a futurist.. from making Op-amps for NASA space program to creating groundbreaking synthesizers that paved the way for today’s music. He was an optimist, he believed in people’s capabilities.

My dad was also a realist, conscious of how humankind was poisoning the planet. We watched Jacques Cousteau, and he started getting concerned about the environment. He became enthralled with movies that portrayed or discussed climate change and became a fan of Al Gore’s work, especially An Inconvenient Truth, which he bought copies to give to friends and family. He started amassing research about wind power and wind energy and other alternative methods, and wanted to create a think tank.

On this Earth Day, April 22, 2022, I think of what he would be saying about the state of things. He was a gentle, loving, kind, left-leaning man, who cared deeply for humanity and the planet we inhabit. I don’t think he would be surprised by what is happening with climate change, a new disease or man’s continuous inhumanity to man. But I think he would be disappointed that we aren’t changing our ways fast enough.

I don’t want to end on a negative note. Knowing him, he would see some of the small steps forward we have made. The cliche “be the change” is a good one. I’m hoping that today, all of us who love music can take a moment to step outside, pause, listen and think about how to lessen your footprint, take one step with our available know-how or technology to be a part of the solution, and think about the future of our Earth. Play music about this precious planet, listen, write, paint, read, teach your children, pass the torch. That’s what my dad would do.

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The ARPs are Coming Home

dddARP — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 17:38:04 +0000

I am standing on the corner of Christina and Needham in Newton, Massachusetts. Behind me an SUV holding several ARP Synthesizers, the keyboards that helped change the face of music forever. This is where much of the magic was made, the birthplace of ARP Instruments, Inc.

Over fifty years ago, my father, Alan R. Pearlman started making ARP synthesizers at what was then Tonus, Inc. They were made by hand, at a little cinder block warehouse at 45 Kenneth. Their success warranted a move to larger facilities, and eventually to an even larger space in historic Lexington, Mass. These moves were a simple puddle jump when compared to the distance that his instruments would travel, and the impact they’d have. ARP Synthesizers would spend more than a decade making some of the most iconic music synthesizers ever.

Now, I am bringing these instruments to their new home in Boston, but considering these instruments have been all over the world, this is a homecoming celebration.

ARPs around the World

Who’s ARP retro ARP ad with Pete Townshend

If you have a pulse and have listened to music made after 1971, you’ve been impacted by ARP synthesizers. From Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra, to Venezuela’s universities; from the studios of The Who’s Pete Townshend, and master screen composers like John Williams and Vangelis; From the stages of The Rolling Stones with Billy Preston on keys, The Ohio Players, Funkadelic, Rufus & Chaka Khan. David Bowie used them extensively on his Berlin Trilogy, You’ve also heard them in seminal works from Herbie Hancock, Prince, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails and Erasure. Just to name a few.

ARPs in Space

If you are a science fiction fan, chances are you heard (and saw) an ARP 2500 in Close Encounters of the Third Kind’s famous final scene, or heard an ARP 2600 as the voice of R2D2 in Star Wars. If you’ve seen “Stranger Things,” you’ve also heard ARP synths setting the mood.

Synthesizers Then and Now

Though some consider synthesizers to be “artificial” compared to other instruments, the artistry involved in playing or creating sound with a synthesizer is just as real as any other instrument.

Analog synthesizers, such as the first popular instruments from ARP, Buchla and Moog, use electrical voltage to create audible sound. This sound can then be manipulated in a myriad of ways, usually with knobs, sliders, patch cords, or other physical controls. This experience inspires a feeling of limitless potential and originality. By adding a keyboard (or any other controller), a player can combine their sound design with musical virtuosity.

With a combination of events that included a burst of new instruments by Japanese companies, the worldwide shift to digital synthesizers and later software synthesizers, these analog instruments grew to be seen as outdated. Folxs starting off in the last 15 years probably haven’t ever used one.

In recent years, love for analog synthesizers have resurfaced, and it’s more than just nostalgia. Many people missed the flexibility, physicality, and possibilities that analog offered. In response many companies are producing either clones or reproductions of some of the most beloved synths, and a thriving vintage market with extremely high price tags exceeding the original cost have placed these beauties far out of reach for most music makers.

Members of TRC and ARPf in front of The Record Co on Mass Ave, Boston, MA

ARPs for ALL

My father was a generous, kind person who extolled the virtues of education and mentorship and practiced what he preached. He was known to lend instruments to friends, students, young musicians and his employees. His hope was to create the opportunity for invention, creation and discovery. The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation honors his legacy through creating educational and artistic opportunities for musicians, particularly young and underfunded music makers.

ARPs for All is a partnership between The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation and The Record Co., a Boston-based, not-for-profit community rehearsal and recording space. Both of these 501(c)(3) organizations share the goal of eliminating all barriers for any musician who has a desire to perform and create.

Learn about Alan R. Pearlman

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The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation Launches first ARPchives Exhibits with Google Arts & Culture!

Mark Marshall — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:51:27 +0000

Music, Makers & Machines

An online exhibition about electronic music

The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation Launches first ARPchives Exhibits with Google Arts & Culture!

Explore and learn about the history and legacy of electronic music through “Music, Makers & Machines”, a new interactive online project by Google Arts & Culture, in collaboration with The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation.

March 10th, 2021, 8:00am – Today, Google Arts & Culture launched “Music, Makers & Machines” – an interactive online resource highlighting the crucial role electronic music plays within wider culture, both past and present. Music, Makers & Machines is the result of a collaboration between The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation and over 50 archives, museums, collections, record labels, festivals and some of the music industry’s leading experts and pioneers from 15 countries, giving everyone an opportunity to explore, learn and appreciate the stories of electronic music.

In over 250 curated online exhibitions, Music, Makers & Machines hosts an extensive archive of over 15.000 photos, videos, 360° tours and 3D scans along with bespoke editorial features delving into scenes, sounds and iconic cities. Learn about the Music genres that grew into movements such as Detroit Techno, House and Gabber, meet the Makers like Honey Dijon, Bob Moog, Ellen Allien or Suzanne Ciani, explore iconic studios like the WDR Studio for Electronic Music, and check out legendary synthesizers and Machines in 3D. In addition, a dedicated AR experiment will enable you to play with five famous synthesizers.

Visit Exhibits Now!

The Alan R. Pearlman Foundation contributed seven stories to the intial launch, and plans on adding several more in the coming months.

Thanks to technology from Google Arts & Culture, we were able to access a variety of media.

Examples :

Hear the sounds: With the help of the worldwide library of YouTube, listen to how ARP influenced the sounds of the seventies (ARP in the 1970s)
Exhibition example: Finally, online visitors can discover more about the founder of ARP Instruments in the story; Alan R. Pearlman, Portrait of an Inventor.
3D content: With the help of a meticulously digitized 3D model of the ARP Odyssey created by SMEM, people will be able to inspect a technological treasure up close.
Play an ARP! Using AR (Augmented Reality) technology, play an ARP, Moog or other famous synths!

“Electronic music has always been a favourite of mine and has been present throughout my life. For me, it’s the soundtrack to growing up, meeting friends, or even studying or exercising. I’m proud that from today on, record labels and cultural institutions from all around the world are telling the history of electronic music on Google Arts & Culture. Learning about the music, the makers and the machines behind the tunes we love rekindle my appreciation for the movement’s impact on our lives”, said Amit Sood, Director of Google Arts & Culture.

Explore Music, Makers & Machines on the Google Arts & Cultureapp on iOS or Android or online via g.co/musicmakersmachines

Google Arts & Culture puts the treasures, stories and knowledge of over 2.000 cultural institutions from 80 countries at your fingertips. It’s your doorway to explore art, history, and wonders of the world. Discover stories about cultural heritage ranging from Museum Island Berlin, Puerto Rico’s heritage, Sports in Australia or the women’s right movement to ancient Maya temples, Japanese Food and Indian Railways.

Music, Makers & Machines is presented by Google Arts & Culture and YouTube, working with international cultural institutions and partners from the music industry on a project about the history of electronic music. The project presents an immersive online exhibition on the pioneers and the most legendary instruments as well as highlighting contemporary trends, places, artists and technological turning points. This is the first comprehensive overview of a music movement presented on Google Arts & Culture.

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My Dad Was a Rock Star

dddARP — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 01:10:20 +0000

Alan R Pearlman about to blow out candles of the cake at his 90the birthday party.

NOTE: This blog post was originally written last June to celebrate his birthday. I didn’t publish it in part, because realized that I wasn’t ready to share him just yet. On the one hand, I want the world to know about a pioneer, inventor, mover and shaker. On the other hand, these memories are mine, and a selfish part of me wants to hang on to them.

Let’s see how this rolls.

~Dina Alcalay Pearlman

June 7, 2019

This is the first of what I hope are many blogposts that will talk about Alan Pearlman the person: father, husband, son, brother as well as the inventor of one of the most influential, pioneering electronic music synthesizers, the likes of which are still influencing musicians and inventors nearly 50 years later.

Happy Birthday Alan R. Pearlman!

My father would have been 94 today. It’s hard to believe that he’s gone—this is cliche, but for anyone who has lost a parent, you know what I’m talking about. I keep thinking, “Oh, I have to ask Dad this,” or “I wonder if Dad remembers that,”

What I have written below was originally the eulogy, which I delivered in a surrealistic haze, the truth is, it’s a celebration of life; birth and death are the life-cycles and my father sincerely believed that death was equally ‘ok’. He was comfortable with his own mortality, embraced it, and never, ever got morbid even when he became ill.

My Dad was a rock star.

This has nothing to do with rock music, ARP synthesizers or music in general. It has to do with a man who rose to the occasion and overcame so much and persevered after many would have given up. He was a 5’6’’ giant, but without the ego, vanity or posturing that many use to overcompensate. Like many nerds (his own description for himself when we last spoke in person) he knew his capabilities and unapologetically accepted them as fact. But was also humble and willing to learn. He didn’t even particularly care for rock music, though he bought me my first Beatles albums when I was a toddler, and Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock graced our music collection alongside Beethoven and Bartok. After finding out he had failed to get George Harrison’s autograph, a prepubescent me chided him soundly and the next trip yielded a Pete Townshend 12” autographed disk. He rose to the occasion.

Ada Jacobs Pearlman and baby Alan

Joy in Curiosity!

Left to right: Don, cousin and Donald Pearlman

from left clockwise: Alan, Ada, Buena and Dina Pearlman

Family Life

As a little girl, my father’s mother, Ada Pearlman (formerly Jacobs) would visit us regularly. She had her guest bedroom and I’d gleefully wait till the dawn broke to jump into her bed and listen to her tell stories about my father and uncle. The one that comes to mind is the one that is typical Alan Pearlman. Apparently, when Alan was a tot, my grandmother came home to find her radio completely taken apart, and my father missing. This was one of several missing Alan stories, but of course, he was able to put it back together, astonishing everyone.

Grandma Ada loved to brag about her smart boys, who grew up to be two of the three powerful male figures in my life. Alan and Don were smart, curious, mischievous and loving in equal doses, and grew up that way, shedding the mantle of boyhood to be powerful men.

Childhood was filled with long dinner conversations that spanned everything from civil rights to black holes, from Holocaust history to new findings in science, to philosophy and technology. The television was on at the dinner table, so Walter Cronkite and Jaques Cousteau joined us as regular guests. My dad knew something about everything, he was my Google. If I had a question, he would answer it.

Alan was an amazing and loving husband. He met my mother, Buena through my beloved Uncle Abety, as he was taking classes and inevitably ended up at his house to fix his television, doing one of those “Hey your sister is cute, can I ask her out?” things. He told me he fell in love with her when they were out on their first date and an outdoor cafe, it started to rain and she grabbed the bottle of wine before they ran inside. They had a romantic, relationship, all through the marriage that I witnessed, setting a near impossible standard for me. My father always had his arm around my mother.

Marathon Man

The Man from ARP

I was a regular NAMM participant at age 8

In the airport

Growing up with ARP

Dad took me and my mother on his many trips around the world that ARP required him to take. My parents kept a Saturday night date for the entire time they were married until my father’s illness separated them from living together. But that never stopped them sharing nearly every day together. One of the sweetest memories I have of the time during his illness was of my mother shaving my father’s face and combing his hair at Stone Institute. She never stopped being a loving wife to her husband.

What I realized later was a never-ending quest for inner peace led to a nearly life-time practice of physical fitness. He met some of his best friends cycling through long vistas in New England, and managed to finish more than one Boston marathon. He was a long-distance runner for the majority of his ARP career, something that I think kept him grounded while many sought fame through the media hype surrounding his accomplishments. One of my greatest memories is running with him on Commonwealth Avenue, right around heart-break hill, during a running phase in my own pursuit of physical fitness. If you think these things aren’t hereditary, check out my cousin Michael who will be running the Boston Marathon later this year. My father was tickled pink to hear this. I know he’ll be encouraging Michael in spirit.

I am proud of my father’s accomplishments. I was a little girl, remembering wandering about the piles of bolts and circuit boards in the little manufacturing center of Tonus that later became ARP Instruments. Through his business, I saw the world, traveling Europe and visiting the West Coast so often—usually for a NAMM show— I still don’t know how many times we were there. We had guests whose names graced popular music albums, we visited mansions in Beverly Hills and convention halls with long-haired young men played big keyboards.

Many of the people from the original ARP days came to his funeral; I consider them part of my extended family. Countless others have reached out to me, or answered my call for stories and support: they are a testimony to the love they feel for this man. We love him not for his accomplishments, but for his passions, from classical music, to solving global warming, to trying new foods or singing loudly off-key in this temple, to his dedication to his wife and daughter. When I sat with David Friend a couple of months back, he credits my father for introducing him to running and fitness.

During this journey since my father left this planet, I realize the true meaning of love as personified by my father. Love is a verb… it’s action. Understanding, forgiveness, and effort, going the extra mile literally and figuratively.

Alan was one of the humblest people on the planet. For many, many years, he didn’t know that his synthesizers had moved into near legendary status as an instrument that changed performance in synthesis forever. One of the biggest joys of my life was when I Googled my father’s name for him, long after ARP had stopped being a company, and he had retired. This was around 2005, when he received Lifetime achievement award from Keyboard Magazine. When he looked at pages and pages of ARP and Alan Pearlman tributes, references, accolades and remakes, he looked up at me in wonder. He didn’t know. He really didn’t know.

In the last few years before he became ill, his interest in the remakes of analog and digital synthesizers rekindled as people pursued him for ideas, endorsements and consulting. He started corresponding with some of the old ARPostles, while also researching wind technology for sustainable energy sources, and still maintaining afairly active daily schedule with my mother, Buena.

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