Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition
I've just had the honour of performing in the public finale of the Guthman New Musical Instrument Competition. It was great to meet some people I already know via oddmusic.com (Neil Feather and Peter Blasser) and also lots of new people with great ideas. Best of all, I performed in a concert as one of the nine maddest new musical instruments in the world :)
One of my favourites was Arvid and his Toob, a really neat wireless interface played a bit like a trumpet. But to pick favourites is actually quite unfair since everyone was coming from their own angle: some were conceptual, some were installation art, some were electronics research, some were electroacoustic music, some were just good instruments. It was especially good that individual artists/makers did so well: although there were some coming out of university funded projects, plenty of self-supported people got into the final and got recognition.
Another great thing was the amount of improv involved: the majority of the contestants, and of the finalists, improvised their pieces, and that's what I like to see. Nothing against planned pieces, don't get me wrong; I just love it when the creativity happens right there on stage.
Big shout outs to all the Georgia Tech folks I met, who were so involved in the proceedings, and to all the instrument makers too. Looking forward to seeing pics+vids etc.