Welcome to the official home of Mona Lisa Sound, The Hampton Rock String Quartet, and MusicJOT.
Formed in 1985 by RCA, the Grammy® nominated, Juilliard trained, largest selling string quartet in history, The Hampton (Rock) String Quartet [HSQ] forged new ground where now, hundreds of groups have followed.
Because of the subsequent demand for HSQ's arrangements, their principal arranger and cellist, John Reed together with Janna Glasser, a successful entertainment attorney, formed Mona Lisa Sound [MLS] in 2000 to publish HSQ's rock string quartet arrangements to make them available for everyone. Hugely successful, especially with public schools, MLS continues to provide innovative and challenging string ensembles.
Building on MLS' success, Reed, also a self-taught computer programmer, started writing a music notation app for iPad™ in 2012 that incorporated handwriting recognition. After five years of development, MusicJOT [MJ] was released on Apple's App Store in January 2017. Apple has since highlighted MJ on four separate occasions on the iTunes® home page. Constantly updating with improvements and new features, MJ is proving itself a major player in the field of mobile music notation for the professional and amateur musician.
"Being able to examine the world around us is paramount to our design. Every discipline in the arts affords us the opportunity to examine that world from a fresh perspective. That in turn opens up new doors to motivation, inspiration and mental growth. Those that forego the arts, live half-lives at best."
- John Reed, 2007
John Reed
Mona Lisa Sound, The Hampton Rock String Quartet, MusicJOT - A native New Yorker, John was trained from age 7 to 17 at The Juilliard School. He received his BFA from SUNY Purchase and studied at Yale. His teachers have included Rose, Shapiro, Ricci, Parisot and Starker. He has performed with his brother, (now retired violinist from The New York Philharmonic) and mother (Juilliard graduate on piano). John has worked with Tony Bennett, Judy Collins, Peggy Lee, Smokey Robinson, Cyndi Lauper, *NSYNC, Warren Beatty, Neil Diamond, Patti La Belle, Leon Redbone, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka, Britney Spears, Manhattan Transfer, Ben Vereen, DePeche Mode, and Dionne Warwick, to name a few. As principal arranger for HSQ, he has scored over 100 arrangements, which have been aired on TV and radio, performed with ballets and published and sold throughout the world. He is past president of the String Industry Council (SINC) and board member of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA).
Also a graphic artist, John created the cover art for over 140 arrangements, all catalogs, flyers, copy, and web site designs and implementations for Mona Lisa Sound. John also recorded, engineered and edited HSQ's last six CDs in his home studio.
As a computer programmer from 1979, John teamed with Mark Dalrymple in 2012 to write music notation software that would recognize handwriting. MusicJOT was released in 2017 and has since gone through numerous revisions, updating and adding new features.
Janna Glasser, Esq.
Mona Lisa Sound - An entertainment attorney and Vice President and General Counsel of Mona Lisa Sound, Inc., Janna has served as an Adjunct Professor at Pace University School of Law. She is a member of the New York Bar. Janna’s clients range from Academy Award® nominees and winners to independent writers, performers and media personalities. She enjoys cooking, quilting and her two step-grandsons.
Regis Iandiorio
The Hampton String Quartet - Regis Iandiorio, first violin, received numerous solo and chamber music awards before receiving his Bachelor’s at Juilliard and his Master’s at Manhattan School. He appeared as soloist with Tchaikovsky Competition Gold-medal-winner Elmar Oliveira in a series of violin duet albums for the Paganiniana and Musical Heritage Society record labels. He is also soloist on the New World Recorded Anthology of American Music, an archival collection honoring the United States Bicentennial. Regis was concertmaster of The internationally known New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Before joining HSQ, he was first violin of The Hofstra String Quartet. He has been on the faculty of Hunter College, Hofstra University, and the Manhattan School of Music and has performed on more than 2000 radio and television commercials, 1000 record albums, and 150 major motion pictures.
Abe Appleman
The Hampton String Quartet - Abe Appleman, second violin, was born in Yokohama, Japan. He began his studies on the violin and piano at age four, soon after which his family moved to the Boston area. He made his debut, at age 15, performing Bruch’s G minor Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Abe has had a multifaceted career, performing in Asia, Europe, and the Americas as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician. Abe is a founding member of the ensemble ‘Voce Intimae’. Abe has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Music Festival and was concertmaster of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in Florida. In NY, Abe performs regularly in the 1st violin section of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and is one of the foremost violinists in the recording industry. He can be heard as a soloist on numerous CDs and motion picture sound tracks. Abe is regularly invited to perform with the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Richard Maximoff
The Hampton String Quartet - Richard Maximoff, viola, reached full scholarship Doctoral candidacy at Juilliard and was a member of the Pierre Boulez Contemporary Ensemble. As principal violist of various chamber groups, he premiered compositions by Bernstein, Britten, Copland, Hindemith, Messiaen, Milhaud and Stravinsky. Richard appeared as chamber music soloist at the White House over two Presidential administrations (Johnson and Nixon). He is also Director of The Chester Baroque Orchestra, NJ.
Mark Dalrymple
MusicJOT - Software developer and instructor, author of Advanced Mac OS X Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, Mark has been programming since 1979, and professionally since 1990. He has had software running on Wall Street trading desks and in space (literally). NASA was running a trial program for an electronic help desk using Visix Galaxy™. Mark wrote some of that code. His code can also be found on millions of Mac desktops. He is a co-founder of CocoaHeads, an international Mac and iOS developers society, with chapters in 40 countries spanning six continents. Mark is also an accomplished trombone and bassoon player and plays with many groups.