A note from Lee Ritenour:

Here’s a gift of thanks to all my fans and friends, and a celebration of the Six String Theory Competition winners 2016. This is a brand-new tune I wrote called “SST Blues” and features winners Roland Balogh & Carter Low on Guitar, Nicolas Hetko on B3 Organ, Isaias Elpes on Bass and Raphael Pannier on Drums.

Also included is a short, behind the scenes video of the SST winners and myself at our recording session in Malibu, CA in September 2016 as part of the prize package. This track will go on my next album but there’s no reason to hold it back in the meantime, so please enjoy this as a free gift of music along with my very best wishes for everyone in 2017. Huge hugs to all the fans that I met around the world this year & those that participated in and/or supported the SST competition and myself- thank you so, so much!
-Lee Ritenour

Download SST Blues: WAV version | MP3 version
Right-click and select “Save Link As …” to download to your computer

*Continued gratitude to our Sponsors, who make the competition possible: Yamaha USA (YCA) , Yamaha Japan (YCJ), Berklee College of Music, Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival & Workshop (COC), Blue Note Tokyo, Monster, D’Addario, Premier Guitar, , Music Connection, Jazziz, Concord Music Group, Guitar HD, Woodshed Recording Studio, True Fire and Xotic Effects Pedals.

WATCH THE MAKING OF VIDEO

2016 Grand Prize Winners from Lee Ritenour’s Six String Theory Competition Recorded & Filmed at Woodshed Recording Studios in Malibu, California September 2016.

Track “SST BLUES” Produced, Composed and Arranged by Lee Ritenour, Rit of Habeas Music- ASCAP (Copyright 2016)

Lee Ritenour – Guitar
Roland Balogh – Guitar (Hungary)
Carter Low – Guitar (Canada)
Nicolas Hetko – B3 Organ (USA)
Isaias Elpes – Bass (Brazil)
Raphael Pannier – Drums (France)

Audio: Recorded and Mixed by Don Murray
Video Produced, Filmed & Edited by Kim Huynh
Project Management: Sharleen Bazeghi
Studio: Woodshed Recording Studios, Malibu, CA.

Sponsors: Yamaha USA (YCA), Yamaha Japan (YCJ), Berklee College of Music, Crown of the Continent Guitar Festival & Workshop (COC), Blue Note Tokyo, Monster, D’Addario, Premier Guitar, Music Connection, Jazziz, Concord Music Group, Guitar HD, Woodshed Recording Studio, True Fire and Xotic Effects Pedals.

Congratulations to the 2016 Six String Theory Winners & Finalists!

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS (each instrument)

GUITAR (tie):      Roland Balogh (jazz)- Hungary  Video #1    Video #2

GUITAR (tie):      Carter Low (blues)- Canada     Video #1   Video #2

PIANO:                Nicolas Hetko-  New York, USA   Video #1   Video #2

BASS:                   Isaias Elpes-   USA/Brazil   Video #1     Video #2

DRUMS:               Raphael Pannier-   France   Video #1   Video #2

GUITAR CATEGORY WINNERS:

Jazz/Fusion Guitar Winner:   Roland Balogh- Hungary    Video #1    Video #2

Blues Guitar Winner:   Carter Low, Canada   Video #1   Video #2

Acoustic Guitar Winner:   Rhythm Shaw-  India   Video #1    Video #2

Rock Guitar Winner:  Tom Caunt- UK   Video #1    Video #2

Classical Guitar Winner:   Stephen Lee-   Indonesia   Video #1    Video #2

Rhythm Guitar Winner:  Peter Skrabak-  California, USA    Video #1    Video #2

JAZZ/FUSION GUITAR WINNER:   ROLAND BALOGH– Hungary   Video #1    Video #2

1^st  Finalist:  Roman Nochevnyy- Turkmenistan   Video #1     Video #2

2^nd Finalist: Pablo Romeu-  Brazil   Video #1     Video #2

3^rd Finalist: Ilya Kamaldinov-  Russia     Video #1     Video #2

4^th Finalist:  Eduardo Belloni-  Brazil     Video #1     Video #2

5^th Finalist:  Jan Jakut- Washington, USA    Video #1     Video #2

BLUES GUITAR WINNER:   CARTER LOW– Canada   Video #1   Video #2

1^st Finalist:  Hayden Fogle-  New York, USA   Video #1      Video #2

2^nd Finalist: Tommy Benson-  Florida, USA     Video #1      Video #2

3^rd Finalist:  Gary Cain-  Canada     Video #1      Video #2

4^th Finalist: Marc Athlan- France    Video #1      Video #2

5^th Finalist:  James Howard-  Washington, USA    Video #1      Video #2

ACOUSTIC GUITAR WINNER:   RHYTHM SHAW–  India    Video #1    Video #2

1^st Finalist:   Sandor Nanasi-  Hungary    Video #1      Video #2

2^nd Finalist:  Kris Schulz-  Canada    Video #1      Video #2

3^rd Finalist:   Antonio Palumbo- Italy   Video #1      Video #2

4^th Finalist:   Jamie Dupuis-  Canada    Video #1      Video #2

5^th Finalist:  Dan Bankhurst- Tennessee, USA   Video #1      Video #2

ROCK GUITAR WINNER:  TOM CAUNT– UK     Video #1    Video #2

1^st  Finalist:   Elmo Karjalainen-  Finland   Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist:  Craig Pirtle- California, USA   Video #1       Video #2

3^rd Finalist:   Luke Fortini-  Italy    Video #1     Video #2

4^th Finalist:   Jorge Almarales-  Florida, USA   Video #1       Video #2

5^th Finalist:   Luciano Silva-  Brazil    Video #1       Video #2

CLASSICAL GUITAR WINNER:   STEPHEN LEE–   Indonesia   Video #1    Video #2

1^st  Finalist:  Ricardo Giuffrida- Brazil    Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist: Dominic Flynn- California, USA   Video #1       Video #2

3^rd Finalist:  Alex Park- California, USA   Video #1       Video #2

4^th Finalist:  Giorgi Kveliashvili- Georgia (country)   Video #1       Video #2

5^th Finalist:  Jasmin Lacasse Roy-  Canada   Video #1       Video #2

RHYTHM GUITAR WINNER:  PETER SKRABAK–  California, USA    Video #1    Video #2

1^st  Finalist:  Viktor Geczy-  Hungary      Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist:  Brad Bailey- North Carolina, USA     Video #1       Video #2

3^rd Finalist:   Yu Ooka- California, USA    Video #1       Video #2

4^th Finalist:  Orion Meshorer – Israel      Video #1       Video #2

5^th Finalist:  Jesse Sullivan- Washington, USA     Video #1       Video #2

PIANO GRAND PRIZE WINNER:  NICOLAS HETKO–  New York, USA   Video #1   Video #2

1^st  Finalist:   Michael Ragonese- California, USA     Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist:   Yakub Saputra- California, USA      Video #1       Video #2

3^rd Finalist:   Tim Dvorkin-  Ohio, USA     Video #1       Video #2

4^th Finalist:   Katarina Kochetova-  Serbia     Video #1       Video #2

5^th Finalist:   Brian Clay- Tennessee, USA     Video #1       Video #2

BASS GRAND PRIZE WINNER:  ISAIAS ELPES–  USA/Brazil    Video #1     Video #2

1^st   Finalist:  Bryan Ladd-  New York, USA    Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist: Brandon Rose-  Michigan, USA    Video #1       Video #2

3^rd  Finalist:  Joe Duran-  California, USA    Video #1       Video #2

4^th  Finalist:  Jacob Smith-  Texas, USA    Video #1       Video #2

5^th  Finalist:  Naoki Isobe-  Japan    Video #1       Video #2

DRUM GRAND PRIZE WINNER:  RAPHAEL PANNIER–  France    Video #1   Video #2

1^st  Finalist:  Yesaya Soemantri – Indonesia   Video #1       Video #2

2^nd Finalist:  Shedly Abraham-   New York, USA    Video #1       Video #2

3^rd Finalist:  Jeroen Truyen-  Germany     Video #1       Video #2

4^th Finalist:  David Hodek-  Slovakia     Video #1       Video #2

5^th Finalist:  Jacori Robinson-  Texas, USA    Video #1       Video #2

NOTE TO ALL APPLICANTS FROM LEE RITENOUR:

First off, I would like to thank all the musicians that applied to the 2016 Six String Theory Competition. I was thrilled that 170 countries visited our website and 45 countries from around the world signed up for the competition. I personally looked at hundreds of videos the last few months and I can honestly say I’m humbled by the sheer amount of talent from around the world that joined the competition.

I’ve said this before, that in general, I don’t like competitions. Music is not about competition… It’s about giving, growing and bringing joy to other people’s lives through music. I believe with our Six String Theory Competition, we try to reach beyond the competition part to encourage musicians to share their music and have a goal to improve. We’ve had several people who have signed up previously for Six String and either not placed at all or did not reach very high in the rankings. Then we’ve had those same people apply in later years, and in some cases, place very high or even win the grand prize.

This year’s winners were an amazing diverse group of musicians and sometimes the first place, second and third were separated by a few votes. All of the judges wrote back to us that this year was very challenging because of the amazing amount of talent and diversity.

I encourage all the musicians that joined our competition to keep going forward…The gift of receiving and giving music is truly one of the most beautiful things on Earth and all of you are certainly doing just that!

-Lee Ritenour

NOTE TO ALL SST JUDGES FROM LEE RITENOUR:

Hi everyone! We have wrapped up the 2016 Six String Theory Competition and I want to thank everyone for taking their valuable time to vote and help out this year… I know everyone is super busy and we really appreciate the time and effort. Everyone did a fantastic job and many of you made very astute and helpful comments regarding your selections. SST was more successful than ever reaching musicians around the world. 170 countries visited the SST site and musicians from 45 countries signed up. We had winners from the US, France, England, Canada, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Hungary…definitely global!

The judges are busy going through all the applicant’s videos and making their Top 6 choices. Those scores will be combined to determine the Grand Prize Winner in each Instrument, as well as the 6 Guitar Genre Winners. Stay Tuned as Winners will be posted on the homepage of this site and on social media. The Winners will also be contacted directly via phone and/or email.  Thanks to everyone who participated- amazing talent displayed!!  Good luck everyone!

We had folks from 170 countries visit this website (out of 196 on earth!)…. and applicants from 45 countries!

MUSIC = GLOBAL UNITY

The clock is ticking… so make sure and get your registration and videos submitted by May 15th!