Our Team

Adrian Bagale

President / CEO

Adrian is a product of his environment. Growing up in Rochester, NY with his father, a musician and music educator, and his mother an artist many times over. His two younger brothers are also both gifted musicians. Music and musical instruments have surrounded Adrian from the day he was born.

His professional work experience has taken him all over the world, working at several musical instrument companies (Elderly Instruments, Saga Musical Instruments, Voyage-Air Guitar) and he maintains a plethora of projects inside the musical instrument world to this day. His first love is the F5 mandolin, an obsession he's had since first seeing a mandolin being played at the local Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY in the early '80s. In Michigan Adrian now spends much of his time sourcing the materials that will become Northfield mandolins and designing and developing new instruments.

Adrian has had the great opportunity to develop instruments for several famous brands over the years and all of that exposure helped him hone in on what really makes this craft special. Working with performing artists has taught him a lot about the needs for musicians too. The Northfield Workshop was born out of a need to work more closely with our small team and all of the encouraging people that we had met along to way.

Kosuke Kyomori

Chief Acoustic Designer

From an early age Kosuke was drawn to the guitar and other stringed instruments. His brother was playing all the time as a semi-pro in Japan and Kosuke was constantly exposed to live music and instruments. After a brief stint at the local university he went to work for Toyota. Still, his heart was in music and the more he saw his brother the more he wanted to surround himself with music and instruments.

After some dabbling with repair and set-up he enrolled at the Chubu Technical Academy of Musical Instruments, in Nagoya. For several years he learned the ins and outs of stringed instrument construction and set-up. After graduating he embarked on a journey to the emerging center of global guitar production, Mainland China. During the next 8 years he worked as Quality Control manager and production manager for a few very large companies making mandolins, banjos, and acoustic guitars. All the while he had been experimenting with different building techniques and designs for mandolin construction to be used in a small workshop. His time as a production engineer taught him the keys to quality management. His love for vintage instruments and mandolin playing offer a very unique perspective complimenting his exceptional eye for design and quality workmanship. He's traveled a lot in his young life, taking on the challenges of international business with composure and confidence. As a founder of our workshop, Kosuke has created something very unique and he hopes to finesse and refine our instruments for a long time to come.

Zhang Xi Sheng

VP / Business Development

Xi Sheng or “Dino,” as he’s known to his closest friends, grew up in the villages around our Qingdao workshop. His mother and father raised his family though some of the hardest times in China. Some of the hardships he's described about growing up in rural China has offered a perspective that shaped our approach to this business from the start. The location, the people, the culture of the city we work in—he understands more about those important details than any of us. His professional background ranges from mapmaking, to extensive experience with leather tanning and Italian shoe making, to musical instrument production/factory management at a very large scale. All of this professional experience has resulted in an amazing network of helpful friends throughout China. Friends that have been willing to help make Northfield what it is today. Dino's skill in sourcing materials (wood, pearl, steel, leather for cases..anything!) is so comprehensive that we are constantly benefitting from his resources. His love for quality instruments and knack for managing a small business has helped us grow from an idea to a reality.

Derek Smith

Product Manager

Derek has played music and been interested in the instruments that project it for most of his life. A true appreciation for high quality acoustic instruments was fostered through 13 years of working at the world renowned string-shop, Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan. That is where Derek and Adrian’s relationship began. Rolling to the Louisville IBMA together, in a van packed to the gills with a treasure trove of instruments was one of many memorable adventures that foreshadowed the future of Northfield Mandolins.

Zack Powers

Assembler / Painter

A graduate of the Galloup School Of Lutherie, Zack has 10 years in the musical instrument industry. He has worked with many of the world’s premier musical instrument companies, and has worked as a repairman in Flint, MI Kalamazoo, MI and Hollywood, CA. Zack’s varied experience is a tremendous asset to Northfield. All that and he can pick a mean mando.