2025 Finalists
Ten innovators from seven countries have advanced to the competition's final round. They will meet on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta, Georgia on March 7 and 8, 2025, to compete for $10,000 in prizes. Each finalist and their instrument has a compelling story — these are the world's next generation of musical instruments.
The finalists will perform at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Concert with their instruments and Atlanta musicians on Saturday, March 8th at 7pm at Georgia Tech's Ferst Center for the Arts. Grab your tickets before they are gone!
Note: If you are a GT student, faculty member, or staff, please log in to use the GT student, faculty, or staff ticket option.
3 Axis MIDI Guitar
Andrew Reid – United States
The 3 Axis MIDI Guitar expands on the standard XY guitar MIDI pad with a pressure-sensitive trackpad and a unique effect control system. Featuring a compact design and clear acrylic pickguard for style and demonstration, it offers control that isn't possible with a normal guitar and stereo output.
Chromaplane
Passepartout Duo & KOMA Elektronik – Italy & Germany
The Chromaplane is an instrument that uses two electromagnetic pickup coils to interact with a cloud of electromagnetic fields laid out in an isomorphic pattern on its flat surface. Designed in 2021 and refined in collaboration with KOMA Elektronik, it operates entirely in the analog domain, providing a responsive and polyphonic playing experience without conventional knobs or keyboards.
Dinosaur Choir: Adult Corythosaurus
Courtney Brown & Cezary Gajewski – United States
The Dinosaur Choir recreates the vocalizations of extinct dinosaurs using CT scans, 3D fabrication, and physically-based modeling synthesis. Musicians produce sound by blowing into a mouthpiece, which drives a computational voice box and resonates through a 3D-printed reconstruction of a dinosaur’s skull and nasal passages.
Hacked Double Trumpet
Nicolas Bras – France
The Hacked Double Trumpet is a fully acoustic, modular wind instrument built from two trumpets modified with 3D-printed parts and adaptors. The air distributor directs air to multiple overtone flutes or other wind instruments, allowing for a customizable setup of pipes and sound outputs.
Living Strings
Palle Dahlstedt – Sweden
The Living Strings is a hybrid acoustic-digital keyboard instrument that combines a repurposed stage piano with TouchKeys multitouch sensors, piezo pickups, and custom physical string models. Vibrations from the physical keyboard and its casing are used to excite the string models, enabling a wide range of playing techniques, such as harmonics, microtonality, and muting.
ModμMIDI
Emily Koh et. al* – Singapore & Georgia
The ModμMIDI is a modular, polychromatic MIDI keyboard designed for ergonomic performance of microtonal music. Its modular design allows keys to be removed or rearranged, enabling customizable layouts. Unlike hexagonal microtonal keyboards, ModμMIDI retains a familiar keyboard format for musicians and uses a polychromatic color system where colors correspond to pitch.
*Full contributor list: Emily Koh, Hunter Becker, Andrew Burnes, Matthew Olsen, Adam Schwarzenbach, Landon Smith
Mulatar
Lockruf Music – United Kingdom & Germany
The Mulatar combines elements of slide guitar, harp, and percussion into a single instrument. Moving bridges allow musicians to adjust notes freely, while the harp section supports quick retuning, and the body functions as a drum. Designed with both acoustic and electroacoustic systems, it enables high-quality recordings and real-time effects processing, making it versatile for solo and street performances.
Petika
Tejas Rode – United States
The Petika is a digital microtonal harmonium that augments the traditional Indian double-reed acoustic harmonium. It allows precise tuning control for each key, eliminating the need for multiple harmoniums set to specific microtonal frequencies. Using digital signal processing techniques such as asymmetric triangle waves, phase modulation, and filters, Petika recreates the tone of acoustic reeds.
The Sophtar
Federico Visi & Sukandar Kamid Kartadinata – Germany
The Sophtar is a string instrument that incorporates feedback, automated beaters, and machine learning to create complex sustained sounds. An embedded computer enables interaction with other instruments and neural audio synthesis models, while a pressure-sensitive neck allows for expressive control of timbre. The instrument can also generate its own sound using algorithms that control beaters and feedback harmonics.
Udderbot
Jacob Barton – United States
The Udderbot is a DIY slide vessel flute made from a modified glass bottle, a flexible bladder, and water. It functions as an acoustic cousin to the slide whistle, ocarina, and musical saw, producing a sound reminiscent of both the flute and theremin. With a simple construction from household materials, the instrument allows for precise pitch control, microtonality, and expressive vibrato.
Start Your Music Technology Journey
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.
Get the Inside Scoop on Music Technology
Learn about our Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, the inventors we feature every year, and the music technology research and degree programs at the Georgia Tech School of Music. We will inspire your creativity and expand your perspectives on music!
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