Dominik Musafia fulfills the roles of President, Lead Consultant, and In-House Counsel for Musafia North America, Inc.  A graduate of Univ. of California, Berkeley and an attorney and member of the Washington State Bar Association, he founded the company in 1996.  

Musafia moved to Cremona in 1993 where he began work as Export Manager for his brother's violin case company.  There he gained a European view into the music industry, while exporting to Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia.  In 1996 he returned to the U.S. and founded the company in Seattle.

Musafia looked at the world of distribution through a different lens.  He believed that more could be accomplished through collaboration than through the traditional modes of distribution.  He saw that the traditional distributor created a bilateral relationship with the manufacturer, and a bilateral relationship with the client -- he believed that a multilateral relationship which put the manufacturer in de facto contact with the client could increase the success for all parties.

This meant that a client, like the case maker Musafia Italia S.r.l., could know who was buying what products, could better understand industry trends, could better respond to customer comments, could more reliably partner in marketing efforts and advertising campaigns, and could have a sense of market control.  The manufacturer was not merely forced to delegate such an important market to a traditional distributor, then sit back and wait (and hope) for orders.

This multilateral collaboration has been a successful model for other clients as well and Musafia North America has willingly adjusted plans and services based upon client needs.

In early work with Italian violinmakers, Musafia realized that the challenge for his violinmaker clients wasn't just the introduction to the market of new instruments from Cremona, but of new instruments in general.  Many musicians were reluctant to purchase a new, handmade instrument; preferring instead an "old" instrument.   In 1997 Musafia collaborated with violin shops in Los Angeles, New York City, and Cincinnati, OH, together with the newly formed guild "Consortium of Violinmakers A. Stradivari" and nearly two dozen Italian violinmakers to create, "Cremona Exhibition, A Living Tradition".  After an immediate success, the collaboration grew over the next several years to include as many as nine U.S. locations, as many as fifty Italian violinmakers, and a partnership with the Cremona Chamber of Commerce, a branch of the Italian government.  With tremendous advertising support, the initiative was easily the most visible event in the industry and resulted in the sale of hundreds of instruments.  Cremona Exhibition not only helped to garner the acceptance of new instruments from Cremona, but of new instrument in general.

Dominik Musafia is very active in the Seattle community.  He is Chair of the Seattle Rotary (#4) Arts Committee, Vice President of the Board of the Seattle Young Artist Music Festival, Communications Chair on the Board of Seattle Opera's enthusiast group "Wagner and More", and past President of Seattle Opera's BRAVO! Club, a 500 member enthusiast group promoting opera to young adults in their 20's and 30's.  He is former President of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Northwest, and represented "Italy" on the Council of European Chambers of Commerce.  He has published numerous articles on the instrument industry in the 118-year-old British publication "The Strad" and the American magazine "Strings"; and has published in the "Journal of the Violin Society of America". He has also lectured to the Violin Society of America on the topics of business and law.  He lectures regularly at Seattle Pacific University's School of Business on topics of international business, trade and law.