At the Winter NAMM Show, The MIDI Association presented the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Awards, honoring pioneers whose work helped define MIDI, computer music, and modern music production.
The honorees include:
- Chris Adam — Co-founder of C-Lab and Emagic, key architect behind Notator and Logic
- Roy Elkins — Connector of artists, technology, and community across the global music ecosystem
- Greg Hendershott — Founder of Cakewalk, who democratized MIDI sequencing on personal computers
- David Kusek — Founder of Passport Designs and pioneer of computer music and MIDI education
- Gerhard Lengeling — Co-founder of C-Lab and Emagic, creator of Logic and architect of modern DAWs
- Dave Oppenheim — Co-founder of Opcode Systems and pioneer of MIDI sequencing and DAW workflows
- Charlie Steinberg — Founder of Steinberg, visionary behind modern MIDI sequencing and virtual studios
- Emile “Dr. T” Tobenfeld — Algorithmic music innovator who expanded MIDI’s creative boundaries
The Association has profiles of the honorees and their work at its site.
Wow, its The Avengers! We hear Moog and Oberheim invoked so often, we sometimes lose sight of heroes like these. Like most people on here, I owe something to almost every one of those honorees. To me, those lifetime awards are better than Oscars.
Hear, hear! These engineers collaborated and worked for years on protocols and standards which cost years of research, and produced beautiful music and art.. I’m glad they didn’t go into making bombs!
Love the Killing Joke t-shirt. Who is it sporting that one?
It’s Ezra Buchla. The recipients listed here and the picture are not aligned. Here’s the caption from the same photo on midi.org.
From right to left in this picture are:
Michelle Moog-Koussa receiving the award on behalf of her father, Bob Moog.
Ezra Buchla receiving the award on behalf of his father, Don Buchla.
Dina Pearlman receiving the award on behalf of her father, Alan R Pearlman.
Morgan Walker of Korg USA receiving the award on behalf of Tsutomu Katoh with Jeff Babko from the Jimmy Kimmel show.
Ikuo Kakehashi receiving the award on behalf of his father, Ikutaro Kakehashi.
Denise Smith receiving the award on behalf of her husband, Dave Smith.
Marcus Ryle receiving the award on behalf of Tom Oberheim.
Dave Rossum receiving the award on behalf of Roger Linn and his own Lifetime Achievement Award.
Awesome. Thanks for the breakdown.
Almost everyone else is dressed as if they ought to be selling condos in SoCal, then there’s this guy.
Badass; zero f*cks given.
There’s a MIDI Association? You learn something new every day.
I hope they still honored Dave Smith even though for obvious reasons he could not attend.
The third person in is Denise Smith, Dave’s wife who accepted on his behalf. That picture is from 2023. This year in 2026 we celebrated this group of innovators.
The MIDI Association is proud to invite NAMM attendees to a special Lifetime Achievement Awards Ceremony honoring pioneers whose work helped define MIDI, computer music, and modern music production.
• Chris Adam — Co-founder of C-Lab and Emagic, key architect behind Notator and Logic
• Roy Elkins — Connector of artists, technology, and community across the global music ecosystem
• Greg Hendershott — Founder of Cakewalk, who democratized MIDI sequencing on personal computers
• David Kusek — Founder of Passport Designs and pioneer of computer music and MIDI education
• Gerhard Lengeling — Co-founder of C-Lab and Emagic, creator of Logic and architect of modern DAWs
• Dave Oppenheim — Co-founder of Opcode Systems and pioneer of MIDI sequencing and DAW workflows
• Charlie Steinberg — Founder of Steinberg, visionary behind modern MIDI sequencing and virtual studios
• Emile “Dr. T” Tobenfeld — Algorithmic music innovator who expanded MIDI’s creative boundaries
Oh ok, good, thanks.