Kurzweil Music Systems, Inc. was founded by inventor Raymond Kurzweil, who had developed a revolutionary reading machine for the blind that scans written materials and reads them aloud in a synthesized voice. Musician Stevie Wonder, a customer for the reading machine, challenged Ray Kurzweil to create an electronic instrument that blended the richness of acoustic sound with the control and sound modification of electronics. The Kurzweil engineers then developed the first ROM-based sampling keyboard to successfully reproduce the full complexity of acoustic instrument sounds - the K250.

When the K-250 was introduced in 1983, the music industry was astounded by its ability to emulate a piano, strings, choirs, drums and other acoustic instruments with extraordinary accuracy. Since then, electronic musical instruments have had a new benchmark of quality for which to strive.

[excerpted with permission from Kurzweil's web pages]

There are currently no Kurzweil instruments in the Museum.