While there has not yet (as of 12:00 pm ET, April 3) been an official announcement issued by the Roland Corporation, there have been numerous reports that the company’s founder Ikutaro Kakehashi has passed away at the age of 87.
Kakehashi led Roland Corporation for over four decades and under his leadership the company introduced some of the most groundbreaking and iconic products in electronic music including the TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, the Jupiter-8 synthesizer, and the System 700 modular synthesizer among many others. In 2013, Kakehashi and Dave Smith received a Technical GRAMMY award for contributions to the development of MIDI technology.
More recently, Kakehashi founded ATV Corporation, a group that created the aFrame electronic percussion instrument, among other achievements.
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