Another nice thing I've been able to add to the diary is a prize the MIDI harp has been given by the Qwartz Electronic Awards. This prize is called the Qwartz Max Mathews Prize, and is for what the jury considers to be the most technologically innovative instrument. Having studied a dossier describing the twenty-five years of work that led to the MIDI harp's realisation, the jury have decided that Camac's instrument represents a great step in the field of electronic stringed instruments.
We are very grateful to Elisabeth Valletti for her work compiling the dossier. At the awards ceremony, Elisabeth will also perform a work she has written for the MIDI harp. Her blue harp work - featured on Harpblog a while back - is fascinating, and we're really looking forward to hearing what she has created for the MIDI harp.
Max Mathews is considered to be the father of musical information technology. A researcher in the Bell Telephone Laboratories, he invented the first analog-to-digital converters, based on Claude Shannon's theoretical ideas. These allowed him, in 1957, to digitally record sound via computer.
The award ceremony will be on April 1st, 2011 in Paris's Theatre du Trianon.
(Photo: Yvonne White)
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