We believe the only thing standing in the way of someone’s musical aspiration is access to the right teacher. That’s why we’re building the world’s most trusted platform for online music education: To ensure that anyone, anywhere, who aspires to any level of musicianship – or to make a living from teaching it – has the right tools and support to make that dream a reality.
We’ve studied, held senior positions, and led major strategic initiatives at institutions such as Juilliard, Berklee College of Music, the Royal College of Music, and The Grammys. We’ve also held key positions at some of the most innovative tech companies in the world, including Magic Leap and Rosetta Stone. Each of us is a musician, as well. While some of us are professionals and others just beginners, we’re all equally passionate about creating a product that brings more music into the world.
Bio +–Dan Fryburg
Director of Operations and Partnerships
Bio +–Mark Murtagh
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Bio +–Will Justice
Director of Engineering
Bio +–Ashley Pitman
Marketing Strategy Consultant
Bio +–Hunter McGranahan
Co-founder and Chief Product Officer
Bio +–Katie Hone Wiltgen
Chief Education Officer
Bio +–Matt Jeanes
Principal Engineer
Bio +–Liam Day
Artistic and Education Director
In early 2020, Mark Murtagh received a call from Hunter McGranahan wanting to catch up on the state of music education. An hour later, Forte was born. Mark was a strategic advisor helping top-tier institutions like Berklee, Juilliard, and the Royal College of Music expand their global reach, and Hunter was building a tech startup’s music education platform offering a more impactful learning experience. Together, these two non-musicians leveraged their deep industry experience and passion for greater educational access to create a first-of-its-kind online music education platform.
Covid-19 shut down music venues and made in-person meetings impossible, silencing many of the world’s musicians. Performing income disappeared, and teaching income became reliant on lessons conducted via video tools built for business meetings. Struggling to hear their students’ instrumentation through these platforms left teachers without a way to deliver high-quality instruction online. So, Forte got to work on a solution. They consulted leadership at the world’s top music schools, as well as independent music teachers around the world, to understand exactly what was needed to help them sustain their educational missions — and then they built it.
The first step was to build a platform with radically better audio, purpose-built for playing and listening to music. This entailed growing the team to include a virtuoso that could hear all the musical nuances that Mark and Hunter could not. They brought on Liam Day, a performer in the New York Philharmonic and Juilliard alumnus, as Forte’s Artistic and Educational Director, to rigorously test and fine-tune their advanced audio software. They then began testing it in pilot programs with The Curtis Institute, Royal College of Music, and Berklee College of Music, with a belief that if it could work for those demanding institutions, it could work for everyone. Six months later, with excellent feedback from their conservatory partners, they began rolling Forte out to musicians worldwide.
As our team continues to grow, so does our usership. Today, Forte is being used by thousands of musicians across the globe, and continues to innovate in partnership with the most esteemed names in music. Have thoughts about what we’re up to, where we’re headed, or how you can get involved?