On May 28 at 10 am Pacific, 1 PM Eastern and 6 PM in the UK, LJ Rich will host the 2022 MIDI Innovation Awards
This year we are incredibly lucky to have LJ Rich hosting the MIDI Innovation Awards (MIA) show which will feature the 15 finalists from the 5 categories interacting with our international panel of judges.
World-renowned performer LJ Rich presents on the International Technology show BBC Click. She’s also a NASA Datanaut and host of the United Nations ITU #AIForGood Summit.
While filming with Click, LJ’s interviewed founders, hackers, and artists across the globe, meeting everyone from Stevie Wonder to Steve Wozniak. Since reading music at Oxford, LJ’s predicted consumer tech trends for over a decade for the BBC, with particular interest in AI, Music and the human/computer interface.
Meet our international panel of judges
We have an amazing panel of judges with incredibly diverse backgrounds, but they all share one thing – a passion for innovation and for MIDI. Here are some details of each of the seven 2022 MIA judges.
CRAIG ANDERTON is an internationally recognized authority on technology and music. He has toured, played Carnegie Hall, mastered hundreds of tracks, and been involved with dozens of major label releases as either a player, producer, or engineer. He’s also written over 30 books (including the seminal Home Recording for Musicians) and thousands of articles, as well as co-founded Electronic Musician magazine.
Known for his ability to de-mystify complex subjects, Craig has given seminars on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and 3 languages.
Michele Darling is an accomplished sound designer, composer, recording engineer, and educator, who fell in love with electronic music and sound creation at an early age. She worked for 10 years as part of an Emmy award winning interactive production team at Sesame Workshop in NYC.
Also throughout her career, she has worked on a wide range of media from national television shows to video games, from online and mobile platforms to electronic toys and music software for clients such as 4Kids Entertainment, HBO Family, The Learning Channel, Toca Boca, Hasbro, Morton Subotnick, The Criterion Collection, iZotope, and more. Michele worked as a member of the Ableton sound design team for Live 10, creating sound presets for the well-known software for multi-genre music producers worldwide.
Currently, Michele is the Assistant Chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
From John Kao’s website”
“The Economist tagged me with the nicknames “Mr. Creativity” and a “Serial Innovator.” Eclectic is how I would describe my experience, from teaching at Harvard Business School and the MIT Media Lab, to producing feature films and theater, starting high tech ventures and even sharing the bandstand with Frank Zappa and the original Mothers of Invention. I’ve explored what leaders can learn from jazz musicians in my book Jamming and what it takes for a country to innovate in my book Innovation Nation. And my greatest pleasure is working with leaders of all kinds who are on the hot seat to deliver some form of meaningful innovation agenda.”
Helen Leigh is an author, education writer, and maker with a focus on creative use of new technologies. She has written playful technology education materials for National Geographic and Intel Education, and has developed a Design, Coding, and Electronics Course for the Royal Court of Oman.
“A musician at heart, inventor born of curiosity, and innovator by necessity, I believe the world calls him the ‘Godfather of Controllerism’ for damned good reasons.” – John Tackett, Crowd Wire
History only notes a handful of artists who successfully pushed the limits – both with their music and the design of their musical instruments. What Bach was to the keyboard and Hendrix was to the guitar, Moldover is to the controller. Disillusioned with “press play DJs”, Moldover fans eagerly welcome electronic music’s return to virtuosity, improvisation, and emotional authenticity. Dig deeper into Moldover’s world and you’ll uncover a subversive cultural icon who is jolting new life into physical media with “Playable Packaging”, sparking beautiful collaborations with his custom “Jamboxes”, and drawing wave after wave of followers with an open-source approach to sharing his methods and madness.
From Kate Stone’s website:
“I describe myself as a creative scientist because we all fit in more than one box. I studied electronics and physics, these give my work structure and discipline, however my true skill is creativity. Creatively using whatever I find around me to solve any problem I encounter. My grandmother told me to ‘cut your coat from the cloth at hand’.
I founded and run a company called Novalia, we create interactive posters and other everyday objects that embody the magic of interactivity and connectivity. Posters that talk, books that turn in to pianos and walls that play music. I am Chair of the Executive board of the MIDI Association and sit on the Editors Code of Practice Committee to help keep an eye on what the UK press determine to be acceptable.”
Yuri Suzuki is an experience and sound designer who works at the intersection of installation, interaction and product design.
His work encompasses sound, music, installations, product design, art direction, education and contemporary art for renowned clients ranging from corporations to musicians to start ups. Projects include a bespoke musical instrument for will.i.am, techno DJ legend Jeff Mills and the AR Music Kit – a music based augmented reality android app turning paper into instruments for Google. He recently has done work for Roland designing the https://808303.studio/.
He was also instrumental in the design in the design of new MIDI logo.
