LEON GRUENBAUM IS A WINNER IN THE INTERNATIONAL GUTHMAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT COMPETITION! Over 50 inventors, composers, creators and designers responded to a call to present their ideas for their musical instrument inventions to the third annual international Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. The event was hosted by the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology and featured a grand prize of $5,000; in total, $10,000 in cash prizes were awarded to the three best novel musical instruments. From the initial response, 22 from six different countries were selected to perform on their instruments at the Center in Atlanta, GA during February 27 and 28, 2011. The instruments were evaluated for musicality, design and engineering by an expert panel including Tom Oberheim, inventor of the first polyphonic music synthesizer, Sergi Jorda, inventor of the reacTable tabletop musical instrument and Georgia Tech Professor Jason Freeman.

The Third prize in this year's competition was awarded to Leon Gruenbaum, a long time New York City resident. He was born and raised in the Boston area, receiving his musical education at the New England Conservatory of Music and at the Music School at Rivers in Weston. He received a B.A. in theoretical mathematics from Harvard University where he was also named the Peters Ivers Visiting Artist in 2003-2004. At the competition Mr. Gruenbaum demonstrated his patented invention, the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee, an adapted computer keyboard that generates individual notes based on relative pitch. The instrument's keystrokes denote changes of pitch, rather than fixed pitches, allowing the performer to play the exact same sequence of keys no matter what key signature he or she is in, simplifying finger patterns and allowing unusual, rapid improvisational flurries. He has been recording and performing on this instrument internationally for many years, with New York-based guitarists Vernon Reid (Living Colour) and James Blood Ulmer, as well as in his own group "Genes and Machines."

The Second prize went to the German group Humatic Berlin for their: MindBox Media Slot Machine, a vintage slot machine with an unexpected modern twist on the age-old tradition of canon composition.

The First prize was awarded to the French group MO by Interlude Consortium for the software that explores novel gestural interfaces for musical expression with everyday objects, such as kitchen utensils and soccer balls.

ÒThe quality of the entries was extremely high and very diverseÓ said Professor Freeman. ÒSome entries were acoustic or mechanical extensions to instruments, and others were primarily software-based or hardware-based.Ó

A call for entries in the 2012 Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition is scheduled to open in August 2011. Visit gtcmt.gatech.edu for updates.

For more information contact: Teri Nagel at (404) 385 2156; e-mail: teri.nagel@coa.gatech.edu