Blue Man Group Invent An Instrument National Contest Announces Winners

Blue Man Group is proud to announce the winner of its Invent an Instrument National Contest held in partnership with education leader Scholastic. The Blue Man Group Invent an Instrument Contest is an annual creative competition that challenges students in grades 5-9 to use their ingenuity and creativity to invent an original musical instrument out of repurposed or everyday objects. This year, over 400 submissions were received. The entries were reviewed by a celebrity judging panel including Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Steve Van Zandt, Pat Metheny, Nile Rodgers, Joel Peresman and Mark Hoppus, who chose Chase Rudisill, a 15 year old 9th grader from South River High School in Edgewater, MD as the winner of the contest for his unique homemade instrument: "The Bass Guitar Drum." The Contest runners-up were 8th grader Katelyn Owen of San Diego who invented a ‘Bike Pipe' and 6th grader Benjamin Johnson of Aurora, Nebraska who invented a ‘Zipper Wall.'

On the morning of March 31st, Chase's teacher, Deborah Lesko, arranged to have local media gather at the school to surprise Chase with this announcement. In addition to this online broadcast, Chase was featured on the local TV evening news. As part of his prize package, Chase Rudisill and his family will travel to Blue Man Group at Universal Orlando Resort, where the Grand Prize winning instrument will be featured during the Blue Man Group Education Program live performance on Thursday, May 12 at 10:30AM. Contest runners-up Katelyn Owen and Benjamin Johnson will also be flown to Universal Orlando Resort for this event. Chase and the teacher who sponsored him will also each be awarded $5,000.

Chase's victory was covered locally at the following links
· http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2011/04/20-39/Student-wins-trip-to-Orlando-after-inventing-instrument.html

· http://edgewater.patch.com/articles/south-river-high-student-wins-5k-and-national-award

Please find more detailed information on the winning instruments below:

· "Bass Guitar Drum"

The "bass guitar drum" has it all. It's ingeniously crafted from everyday materials (rubber bands, a plastic bucket, etc.); it's musically versatile (you can play beats as well as a wide range of notes); and - most importantly - it sounds cool. Using the bucket as both a drum and a resonator for the strings is brilliant. Also, since the rubber bands can be tuned to or played at any pitch, the "bass guitar drum" player can express almost anything he can dream up. We were impressed and amazed by how versatile and musical such basic objects could be once they had been put together in such an imaginative way. The "bass guitar drum" was the clear winner in our book.

· "Bike-Pipe"

The Bike-Pipe is both an imaginative instrument and a fascinating piece of "junk" sculpture. We loved the fact that it takes two people to play it and that it's composed of so many different - seemingly unrelated- found objects. Adding pitch control to the tube was a nice touch. The bike-pipe may not be the most versatile musical instrument, but it's a fascinating machine that generates a unique and unusual sound. Clearly the result of a fertile and inventive imagination!

· "Zipper Wall"

The zipper wall shows just how much sound can be gotten out of only a few everyday objects (zippers, coins, Velcro) if you also apply a healthy dose of imagination. This instrument makes a variety of cool percussive sounds and amplifies them acoustically using basic resonant chambers. It's well-crafted, cool to look at, and probably fun to play! Nice work!

As an organization, Blue Man Group strives to create work that is unique, original, and inventive, consistently identifying areas where new and unconventional approaches can be explored and developed. These values are applied throughout the organization, including in the development and construction of instruments.

A special thanks to NAMM, MENC and VH1's Save the Music for distributing our program materials to their membership and grant recipient schools.

About Scholastic

Scholastic Corporation is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and a leader in educational technology and children's media.

Scholastic creates quality educational and entertaining materials and products for use in school and at home, including children's books, magazines, technology-based products, teacher materials, television programming, film, videos and toys.

Scholastic distributes its products and services through a variety of channels, including proprietary school-based book clubs and school-based book fairs, retail stores, schools, libraries, television networks and www.scholastic.com.

About Blue Man Group

Blue Man Group is best known for its wildly popular theatrical shows and concerts that combine music, comedy and multimedia theatrics to produce a totally unique form of entertainment. The blissful party atmosphere created at the live events has become the trademark of a Blue Man Group experience.

Currently, Blue Man Group theatrical shows can be seen in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Berlin, Tokyo, and on tour throughout the U.S. and Europe.

Audiences have multiple opportunities to discover Blue Man Group through the scope and variety of its creative projects, including:

· Blue Man Group's headlining performance on the new Norwegian Epic by Norwegian Cruise Line-the Official Cruise Line of Blue Man Group

· Blue Man Group family-focused educational projects, including a touring Children's Museum exhibit, "Making Waves"

· Blue Man Group's original music, including the Grammy®-nominated "Audio", as well as four additional albums, and numerous scoring projects for film, TV and commercials

· Blue Man Group's multiple performances on popular television shows such as The Tonight Show, Ellen, and Regis & Kelly; and unique storylines in "Scrubs" and "Arrested Development"

As the company grows, it remains true to its vision of providing exciting experiences in a variety of media, appealing to a broad range of age groups and cultural backgrounds. Learn more at www.blueman.com.

 

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