Hyundai Development Company has appointed Ray Kurzweil as Chief Strategy Officer of Kurzweil Music. Hyundai Development, one of the world’s largest corporations, plans to work with Ray Kurzweil to “build Kurzweil Music into one of the largest music instruments brands in the world,” the company stated.

Kurzweil, who founded Kurzweil Music in 1982, will work with Kurzweil Music management on technology strategy and will also be a primary spokesperson for the company.

Ray Kurzweil with Kurzweil Music’s Mike Papa accepting the NAMM Lifetime Achievement Award. (credit: National Association of Music Merchants)

At the recent NAMM convention, piano maker Young Chang North America (acquired by Hyundai in 2006) and Kurzweil Music jointly presented “Life Achievement Awards” to Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Ray Kurzweil in its 50th Anniversary Celebration.

“We were very proud to honor Ray Kurzweil, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel,” said Kurzweil Music national sales manager Joe Papa. “Stevie tried to turn down his award, stating that he wanted to give his to Ray Kurzweil, who really deserves it.”

When the crowd of dealers, Young Chang and Kurzweil executives, musicians, and music industry people heard that Ray will be working as a consultant with Kurzweil Music, they let out a cheer with loud applause.”

“The combination of Kurzweil Music’s strong core technology, with the new Kurzweil Mara chip technology, which is stronger than anything else in the industry, is matched with Hyundai’s strong brand, resources, management excellence, and manufacturing reliability,” said Kurzweil in an impromptu acceptance speech.

At NAMM, Kurzweil Music also introduced the Kurzweil PC3, “the ultimate performance controller keyboard, offering an enormous collection of stunning preset sounds, comprehensive real-time controller functions, 128 high quality channels, and the power of a full-blown workstation.”