Creative Team Biographies
With a background in consulting and education, Hollis Dayton has over 25 years of professional experience in product design consultation focusing on consumer products, telecommunications and medical equipment.
Working in coordination with entrepreneurial individuals and the marketing and engineering departments of Fortune 500 company's like Ryobi, Proctor Silex, Scientific Atlanta, Synthes and G.E. Plastics, she provided market analysis, concept and design development, ergonomic studies, engineering and manufacturing liaison resulting in designs for an extensive range of products; including heart monitors, vacuum cleaners, security systems, bicycle accessories and telecommunication devices.
While teaching at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and at the University of Michigan as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at the School of Art & Design, she participated in numerous grants including; several AT&T programs that ranged from a “Latino Family Services” park to a “Design for Business” website. As a member of the Design Futures program staff, she developed and designed learning materials and designed project curriculum for Michigan high schools.
She holds a patent on a proprietary bicycle accessory she has developed.
Philip Kass is a respected expert, appraiser, consultant and writer on fine classic stringed instruments and bows.
From 1977 until 2002, he was an associate of William Moennig & Son, Ltd. of Philadelphia, where he handled many of the world's great stringed instruments.
His training in expertise came from William Moennig III, William Moennig Jr., and Dario D'Attili, and this he supplemented through his own independent travels, inquiries and explorations.
Mr. Kass has published numerous articles in The Strad and the Journal of the Violin Society of America, as well as in such other periodicals as Smithsonian and Strings. He also prepared numerous entries for both the previous and current editions of the New Grove's Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians.
Much of his writing has been based upon his own original research into English and French bow making and the violin makers of Piedmont, Cremona, and the Amati family. He was also a contributing author to The British Violin, published by the British Violin Makers Association in 1999. He has spoken on these and other topics on numerous occasions for the Violin Society of America, The American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, and the British Violin Makers Association.
A member of the Violin Society of America since 1975, Mr. Kass has served on its Board of Director since 1976 and as Vice President since 1985. He served as President from 1997 until the beginning of 1999.
Steven L. Shepherd earned a degree in literature from the University of California, San Diego. His primary interests as a writer are in literary nonfiction, the personal essay, and journalism. He is a native Californian and a longtime San Diego resident.
Mr. Shepherd's first book, In Praise Of Tomatoes: A Year In The Life Of A Home Tomato Grower (HarperCollins, 1996), was honored as the year's Best Memoir by the San Diego Book Awards and garnered a Quill & Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association of America. His second book, Our Fathers: Reflections by Sons, was published by Beacon Press in 2001. Edited by Mr. Shepherd, this collection of memoirs and essays featured the work of some of America's finest writers of the latter twentieth century, including James Baldwin, Scott Russell Sanders, and Tobias Wolff.
Holder of a master's degree in public health, Mr. Shepherd has published original research in the peer-reviewed scientific press, and was for five years senior writer and contributing editor for Executive Health Report, the nation's oldest health newsletter. For general audiences, he has written on subjects ranging from piano tuners to plant collectors. His work has appeared in national magazines, literary reviews, and regional weeklies. His two-part cover story for the San Diego Reader, “Diary of a Sewer Repair”, earned prizes in the non-daily print category for “Best of Show” and “Best Feature Story” from the San Diego Press Club at its 1998 annual journalism awards ceremony.
Mr. Shepherd's award-winning work on luthiers includes surveys of trends in the art, auction coverage, and profiles of contemporary and historic American bow and instrument makers. His violin-related pieces have appeared in such varied publications as Strings, San Francisco magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and American Heritage of Invention & Technology.
Bill Townsendâs career has been marked by his involvement in several high profile technology companies. As part of the founding management team at Internet search engine Lycos, Inc. and young adult marketing and media company YouthStream Media Networks, he has overseen high growth publicly-held companies in the education, media and technology sectors. While avoiding the dotcom failures of the late few years, he has been involved in the launch and management of several companies including, GeoCities (now Yahoo!), NewsAlert (now CBS Marketwatch), Deja News (now Google), Supermodel.com (now Model Search America), Really Easy Internet (now Hey, Inc.), Futuristics.net, and PayByTouch.
He is currently a partner and Chief Marketing Officer for Bizzuka, Inc., a technology platform development company seeking to simplify small and medium enterprisesâ accessibility and use of Internet technologies. He is the founder and Chairman of The Amati Foundation, non-profit organization dedicated to the establishment and financial support of stringed instrument programs in under-served schools in the United States.
Townsend previously served as Chief Marketing Officer of Cyber Operations, a technology research and development firm conducting military and government initiatives, Vice President/Director of Marketing for Ketchum Advertising, at the time a worldwide Top 20 ad agency, and President of Interminds, a corporate turnaround firm.
At Lycos he published the Internetâs first Childrenâs Advertising Guidelines, establishing privacy and advertising standards for marketers interested in utilizing the Internet for marketing, advertising, and sales to minors. He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, Loyola Marymount University, Internet World, SIMBA, Digital Hollywood, @dTech, Softbankâs Camp Internet, South-by-Southwest Interactive Festival, and has been featured on NBC Nightly Newsâ series about the Internet.
He is a resident of Austin, Texas where he resides with his wife, Jennifer (formerly VP Interactive for FAO Schwartz), and their children. When not focused on business, Townsend spends his time making violins. His work has been featured in The Smithsonian Institution & New Braunfels Museum of Art & Musicâs, Heart & Hands: Musical Instrument Makers of America exhibition. He has made instruments for such artists as Brian Beken (Sidehill Gougers), Edward Caner (ExtremeViolin.com) and Martie McGuire (Dixie Chicks).
