These inventions are among the 20 semi-finalists competing in an annual competition to find the next generation of music instruments.

The Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, held at the Georgia Institute of Technology, seeks to find the world’s best new ideas in musical instrument design, engineering and musicianship. Entries represent a dozen countries and expand our assumed notion of what constitutes an instrument and the sounds it can produce.

“This year we have seen a tremendous variety of high-quality submissions – from beautifully designed acoustic instruments to sophisticated electronic instruments utilizing wearable, mobile and robotic technologies,” said Gil Weinberg, director of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology.

The center, the School of Music, and the College of Architecture sponsor the competition. Contestants compete for $10,000 in prizes.

“In its seventh year, the competition has established itself as the place to go for those who want to get a glimpse of the future of musical performance and expression,” Weinberg said.

During this year's competition organizers will honor Richard Guthman, who recently passed away. Guthman, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1956 with a degree in industrial engineering, founded the Margaret Guthman Keyboard Competition in 1988 as a tribute to his wife. The event evolved into the current musical instrument competition.

Judging the 20 semi-finalists are: DJ Hurricane, a producer and rapper who is best known for his work with the Beastie Boys; Graham Marsh, a Grammy award-winning producer, mixer and engineer who has worked with Ludacris, Bruno Mars and CeeLo Green; and Joe Paradiso, a physicist who designs electronic music synthesizers and directs the MIT Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group.

And for the first time, the competition will also include a student challenge. Over 70 Georgia Tech students registered to participate in the Guthman Musical Instrument Design Challenge, sponsored by synthesizer maker Moog and the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts. Student winners will receive cash and in-kind prizes valued at more than $6,000. Participants will also get the chance to present their invention during the main Guthman Competition event.

Judges for the Student Design Challenge are: Michael Adams, CEO of Moog Music; Aaron Lanterman, a Georgia Tech professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who specializes in digital signal processing; and Lee Lerner, a research scientist with the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

The main Guthman Competition will be held February 19 and 20 at the Klaus Advanced Computing Building on campus. The finals will be held February 20 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm on campus and are free and open to the public. The finals will also be live streamed. More information about the contest and live streaming can be found at http://guthman.gatech.edu.

The Festival will feature a variety of arts experiences at both indoor and outdoor venues. The work can be independently produced by students or faculty affiliated with Georgia Tech or produced as part of an academic or research project. Projects can showcase the convergence of art and science/technology, or be solely artistic in nature.

Exhibit proposals can be submitted at http://arts.gatech.edu/content/techarts-exhibition and performance proposals at http://arts.gatech.edu/content/techarts-performance. The deadline for full consideration of submissions is February 15.

 “This is a Georgia Tech arts festival, so while we expect some projects will feature the very talented musicians or visual artists who are part of the Tech community, other projects will showcase the coming together of arts and technology,” explains George Thompson, Director of the Office of the Arts and Festival producer. The Festival is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Council of the Arts and the Office of the Arts.  The annual event is open to the campus and the Atlanta community.

The 2013 Festival coincides with the annual Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition. Events already slated for the festival include Student View, a visual art exhibition by freshmen in the Writing Communication Program, a concert by the Georgia Tech School of Music, the musical production of DramaTech’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, selected works from the Art Crawl sponsored by the Clough Undergraduate Learning Center, and Automaton, a graduate project featuring dance and robots.  Please call 404-894-2787 for more information.