Our 2014 Six String winners perform at the July 2014 Montreux Jazz Festival and we are so proud of how great they did! This playlist has 3 songs from their opening set for Lee Ritenour’s concert. Six String Music winners: Giorgi Mikadze (keys), Kenneth Salters (drums), Tony Pusztai (Guitar) and Andres Rotmistrovsky (Bass) Also performing was Leandro Pelligrino, who was the 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival Competition Guitar winner.
The 2014 Six String Theory winners went to Montreux, Switzerland July 4-July 8, 2014 to perform as the Opening Show for Lee Ritenour’s Concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival! Performing at the 2014 Montreux Jazz Festival was part of their prize winning package and their show was a big hit and the crowd cheered them on!
Performing together were: Tony Antal Pusztai (SST Guitar Winner), Giorgi Mikadze (SST Piano Winner), Kenneth Salters (SST Drum Winner), Andres Rotmistrovsky (SST bass 1st Runner Up), and Leandro Pellegrino (MJF Guitar Winner 2013). Our 2014 Bass Winner, MonoNeon, was not able to go to Switzerland due to previous booked concerts so our Andres was invited to join as he was the 2014 1st Runner Up. The SST winners performed with the Montreux Jazz Festival Guitar winner 2013, Leandro Pellegrino. We will have video posted soon and more photos are posted on the 2014 photos tab.
GUITAR: Antal Pusztai — Budapest, Hungary | Video #1 | Video #2
PIANO: Giorgi Mikadze — Tbilisi, Georgia (Boston) | Video #1 | Video #2
BASS: Dywane Thomas Jr. “MonoNeon” — Tennessee, USA | Video #1 | Video #2
DRUMS: Kenneth Salters — New York, USA | Video #1 | Video #2
Classical Winner: Antal Pusztai — Budapest, Hungary | Video #1 | Video #2
Jazz Winner: Roman Nochevnyy — Ashgabat, Turkmenistan | Video #1 | Video #2
Rock Winner: Damir Puh — Tetovo, Macedonia | Video #1 Video #2
Acoustic Winner: Max Godman — Mumbai, India | Video #1 | Video #2
Country Winner: Brooks Robertson — Oregon, USA | Video #1 | Video #2
Blues Winner- Johan Borgh — Stockholm, Sweden | Video #1 | Video #2
Piano Winner: Giorgi Mikadze — Tbilisi, Georgia (Boston) | Video #1 | Video #2
Bass Winner: Dywane Thomas Jr. “MonoNeon” — Memphis, TN, USA | Video #1 | Video #2
Drum Winner Kenneth Salters — New York, USA | Video #1 | Video #2
*Please Note about BERKLEE scholarships: Applicants considered by Berklee for the scholarships that indicated interest on the registration form includes all winners, semi-finalists as well as applicants not placed in the semi-finals. Berklee will contact applicants directly inviting them to apply.
First off, a huge thanks for everyone’s participation in this year’s Six String Theory competition! This was by far our biggest turn out in four years and thanks to our incredible sponsors and the work of the SST team, not only did we have our biggest turn out, but also received videos from 48 countries!
Included here is the alphabetical (by first name) list of our semi finalists in each category that will be judged and voted on by our incredible board of artists and educators. Personally, I’ve been watching the videos since January, when they started rolling in, including, all the way through the last day! I was truly humbled by the amazing talent on these videos! I had the best seat in the house and learned a lot!
If you start counting up the semi finalists, you will see that all guitar categories but country, we have more than six semi finalists, as originally planned. There were just too many good musicians and we had to expand the semi finalist lists. We also have additional semi finalists for the Rhythm Competition in piano, bass and drums. For everyone that made the semi finalist list there was another 10 in each category that was one breath away from being a semi finalist too… it was that competitive!
And by the way, just to let everyone know, ever since I was a kid, I’ve hated competitions! LOL! I think they are contradictory to musicians bringing joy to the world, by making music. But, in today’s world, musicians need all the help they can get with exposure and I would like to think that SST tries to do that for all of you. I truly believe, all of you were winners by just joining the competition and trust me, a lot of people have been checking out your videos!
One note about YouTube… The videos varied incredibly in quality and sound. We tried to get past the inferior quality that some came in with and only concentrate on the performance. The range was amazing, to almost total pro, picture and sound, & then all the way to the distorted cell phone capturing a band from way back in the club with the audience being louder than the musicians :-). I think in today’s world presentation is extremely important and it is absolutely not necessary to spend a lot of money to make a professional video, but the sound of your instrument and the way it is recorded is part of the process of being a great musician… So always keep that in mind when your YouTube videos are going viral around the world! 🙂
This contest would never have existed when I was getting started. One of my first big contests was the Hollywood Bowl “Battle of the Bands” in Los Angeles when I was a teenager… We came in second to a group called the Carpenters… Richard playing piano and Karen Carpenter playing drums (not singing yet)… their hits would come later. That was the kind of exposure then & now we watch videos every day from all over the world… absolutely amazing!
Once again, thanks so much for everyone’s participation… The finalists and runner ups will be announced on June 1, 2014. Good luck!
– Lee
Big thanks to all who registered in the 2014 Six String Theory Competition making it our largest turn out in our 4 competition history! We received applicants from 48 countries and loaded with talent! Judging has begun and is always difficult with so much incredible talent to view.
We will be posting the top 6 in each instrument including each category of guitar before June 1, 2014. The 4 Grand Prize Winners will be posted and notified directly on (or before) June 1, 2014. Thanks again for participating in this year’s competition and making it a banner year!
