“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our President and Representative Director, Seiki Kato, who passed away peacefully at 8:00 PM on February 21, 2025, at the age of 67, following an illness.”
So says the latest announcement from Korg, marking the passing of the man who played a vital part in putting Korg in the ‘big three’ spot in music tech that it still enjoys to this day.
Alongside Yamaha and Roland, Korg – under Kato’s direction – underwent a renaissance in the 1980s, striking gold with their all-digital, sample and wave ROM-based M1 keyboard and its countless subsequent spin-offs which provided the inspiration for further experimentation and radical new products to follow.
Born in Tokyo on 28 March 1957, Seiki was the eldest son of Tsutomu Kato, the founder of Korg and after graduating from university he joined Keio Giken Kogyo Co.Ltd. (later to become Korg Inc.) in 1980.
Early in his career, he worked in sales at Korg but by 1985, he had become Head of Product Planning, playing a pivotal role in the development of innovative instruments such as the M1, the groundbreaking music workstation.
While Yamaha had struck gold with their FM synthesis based all-digital DX7, Korg had been caught on the hop in an analogue to digital transition. However, under Kato’s leadership the company found its feet, investing in and inventing the workstation category keyboard with the M1 in 1988 – a keyboard equipped with production-ready sounds built on complex, digitally stored waveforms with eight-part multitimbrality as its secret weapon.
And with digital effects built in at a preset level, a huge library of drum sounds and a sequencer also in the box, now one keyboard could really do it all.
Plus, the fact that the original M1 – while packing just 100 presets – actually featured 100 of the most original, usable and much-loved synth sounds of the next two decades didn’t hurt its prospects either.
To this day the M1 Piano and Organ – frequently used for house bass – are still much-used irreplaceable classics.
In 1988, Kato relocated to Korg USA Inc. and in October 1989 was appointed President of Korg USA, where he played a key role in expanding Korg’s presence in the U.S. market. In 1995, he became Executive Vice President of Korg Inc. and in October 2003, he assumed the position of President and CEO.
Speaking to the NAMM organisation back in 2018, Kato went some way to explain the Korg’s growth and progress during his tenure: “30 years ago, when we started selling the M1, we had just the M1, but now we have many kinds of keyboard. It’s very tough, but we have to match each customer with what kind of product they want.
“For example there’s Korg R&D in Italy. Mainly they’re thinking about products for Europe, but recently they’re looking at Africa and the Middle East.
"That type of music is different. They don’t care about music from the West side. If you visit Iran they call Korg “MiniKorg keyboard”, that’s because we make a localised version just for Iran and Turkey.
“So now we have to make a product for each country.”
“The instruments he helped bring to life have empowered musicians around the world, shaping the future of music and artistic expression,” said Korg.
“We remain committed to carrying forward his passion and spirit of innovation, striving to create products that inspire. We sincerely appreciate your continued support.”
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