Guthman Competition instruments in hexagon crops.

2024 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

2024 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition

The Guthman Musical Instrument Competition is the only competition of its kind — an event that identifies the newest and greatest ideas in music. Every year, we invite musical inventors from around the world to share their creations and ideas about the future of music.

On March 8 and 9, 2024, ten finalists from around the world will showcase the next generation of musical instruments. Discover their musical and design excellence as they compete to win $10,000 in prizes.

2024 Winners

Max Addae playing VocalCords onstage at the Ferst Center for the Arts

1st Place: VocalCords

Max Addae - United States

Jean-François Laporte and Katie Young play bassoon and the Babel Table onstage at Ferst Center for the Arts.

2nd Place: Babel Table

Jean-François Laporte – Canada

Jeremy Muller and Nicola Privato play percussion and Thales onstage at Ferst Center for the Arts

3rd Place: Thales

Nicola Privato – Italy

Sonògraf performance at the Ferst Center for the Arts

Honorable Mention for Education: Sonògraf

Playmodes - Spain

Sonògraf performance at the Ferst Center for the Arts

People's Choice: Sonògraf

Playmodes - Spain

Meet the 2024 Finalists

Two men play the Babel Table.

Babel Table

Jean-François Laporte – Canada

“I am a manual person and need to feel material pass in my hands. It is exactly the same with music and sound, I need to touch it and feel it in my body and throughout my hands, not only my brain.”
Dancers wear the BodyMouth

BodyMouth

Kat Mustatea and Yonatan Rozin – United States

“Being around other people who have obscure passions and are also undertaking wild and weird experiments, is pretty much why I went into being an artist in the first place.”
The Bone Conductive Instrument.

Bone Conductive Instrument (BCI)

Pippa Kelmenson – United States

“As a lifelong musician, technologist, and sound artist with hearing impairments and tinnitus, I have always looked for ways to add a tactile dimension to sound to create a dialogue with the body.”
The Circle Guitar.

Circle Guitar

Anthony Dickens - United Kingdom

"Using a programmable wheel to strum the strings, the player can push past the physical limitations of conventional guitar playing to create new kinds of guitar music.”
The Lorentz Violin.

The Lorentz Violin

Thomas Coor – United States

“There is little more exciting to me than strange sounds, and little more satisfying than controlling them.”
The Sonograph.

Sonògraf

Playmodes - Spain

“We wanted to bring children an accessible and fun way of composing music through drawing and collage.”
The Thales.

Thales

Nicola Privato – Italy

“Thales is a very cheap and easy-to-build instrument, and I think of this feature as an invitation for artists to build their versions and experiment with it.”
The Vocal Cords.

VocalCords

Max Addae - United States

“I would love for VocalCords to become a vessel for vocalists with varying degrees of performance experience and vocal comfort, … empowering people to creatively explore and express themselves through their voices."
The X.E.K.I.

X.E.K.I.

Orpheas Kofinakos, Herui Chen, Peter Zhang – United States

"We looked for additional ways to incorporate motion akin to traditional instruments in the playing and performance of digitally produced music, as we found the devices most often used in this context do not focus on the role of body movements."
The YUAN.

YUAN

Chi Wang - United States

“As a result of instrument’s mutability, the composer can reimagine the sonic world with different combinations of YUAN. Performers can engage the instrument via capacitive touches, brightness changes, and motion detective movements.”

2024 Judges

Join us Friday, March 8, from 4:00pm - 5:00pm at the Ferst Center for the Arts for a free panel discussion with the 2024 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition judges!

Bosco Kante

Bosko Kante

Grammy-Winning Artist, Producer

Andrew McPherson

Andrew McPherson

Prof. Design Engineering and Music, Imperial College

Kelly Snook

Kelly Snook

Producer, Music Technologist, Data Sonification Researcher

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At the Georgia Tech School of Music, our students combine technical skill with exceptional music talent to truly change the way the world experiences music. Learn more about our bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in music technology, our pre-college summer studio, and our innovative research labs.

Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Updates

Sign up for Guthman Musical Instrument Competition communications to receive updates on milestones about the competition, as well as information regarding our 2024 finalists, events, and concert.

2024 Winners

Max Addae playing VocalCords onstage at the Ferst Center for the Arts

1st Place: VocalCords

Max Addae - United States

Jean-François Laporte and Katie Young play bassoon and the Babel Table onstage at Ferst Center for the Arts.

2nd Place: Babel Table

Jean-François Laporte – Canada

Jeremy Muller and Nicola Privato play percussion and Thales onstage at Ferst Center for the Arts

3rd Place: Thales

Nicola Privato – Italy

Sonògraf performance at the Ferst Center for the Arts

Honorable Mention for Education: Sonògraf

Playmodes - Spain

Sonògraf performance at the Ferst Center for the Arts

People's Choice: Sonògraf

Playmodes - Spain

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