Georgia Magazine - January 2020 - 31

"It started [in 1998] as a piano competition that
was an idea and a gift from an alum, Richard Guthman, to honor his wife," explains Jason Freeman,
chair of the School of Music. "As the School of Music
grew in the 2000s, it became not just a place to play
in the band or orchestra or sing in the choir. We
wanted to become more of an academic program
that brings art and technology, music and engineering, together. And we wanted to re-envision the
competition to support and celebrate that aspect."
In 2009, with the support of the Guthman
family, the focus shifted to new instruments. Forty
entries were received the first year, and since then
the competition has grown steadily in number of
entrants and ingenuity. Last year's event finished
with 14 finalists from seven countries.
"These are artists, engineers, entrepreneurs
and designers who have found a new way to engage
in music making and want to share their ideas with
the world," Freeman says. "It's a unique event that
benefits our students as a model of how music and
technology come together, but it also reaches into
the community for anyone who's passionate
about music and technology."

Spectrum of sounds

COURTESY KEITH GROOVER

COUR
T

ESY KEITH GROOVE

The entries are often as surprising to Freeman
as to the panel of judges, who are experts in the fields
of music design, technology, academia and composing and are recruited from around the world to
name a winner. Linn was part of the 2019 panel that
presented the top prize to Keith Groover, a South
Carolina guitarist who learned about the competition
on YouTube.
"I was looking at weird musical instruments and
watched highlights of the competition, then I learned
it was the pre-eminent competition of its type in the
world," says Groover, who teaches music, leads music
at his church and plays corporate gigs as part of a
guitar duo. "I'd been working on my instrument for
about a year and had gone through about 500 different software prototypes before I entered the contest."
Groover's four-octave instrument, called The
Glide, is built around a sensor that detects acceleration and gravity. With two controllers, outfitted with
five buttons and a joystick, he can change volume,
select different notes, alter tones, use vibrato and
glide from one note to another. And he devised it
without an extensive knowledge in programming.
"I had the idea on paper and had to take it to a
programmer friend, who gave me tips on how to get
started," he says.
While winning $5,000 was an incomparable
experience, Groover says meeting Linn and
making connections to people who can
Keith Groover from
help him market The Glide were
Spartanburg, S.C., took
equally valuable.
home the top prize
"Roger gave me pointers on
in 2019 with The
hardware and put me in touch
Glide. He says
he has about 110
with the designer of his last
preorders for the
circuit board, so we've been
instrument, which works
collaborating," Groover says.
with two handheld
"Meeting the judges, making
controllers.
contacts and getting some
press were a very big help
toward commercializing this

Hear it first
The 2020 Margaret Guthman New Instrument Competition presents the finalists
and their creations March 7 at 7 p.m. at Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for the Arts,
250 Ferst Drive, Atlanta. The event is free and open to the public. For directions
and more information about the competition, visit guthman.gatech.edu.

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Georgia Magazine - January 2020

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