For the musicians of the Lago Flute Quartet, the future is bright -- specifically, bright magenta, orange, blue and yellow.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Lago Flute Quartet, from left, Alison Crossley, Alan Berquist, Cecilia Ulloque, Katy McKinney, practice with their LED-lined flutes in Kresge Hall at Carnegie Mellon University. Click photo for larger image. Hear the Lago Flute Quartet performing the allegro from Mark Fromm's "Dances of the Lake." Lago Flute Quartet Where: First Trinity Lutheran Church, Oakland. When: 7 p.m. Monday Tickets: $5; 412-683-4121.

The ensemble of current and former Carnegie Mellon University School of Music students has tapped into light emiting diode (LED) technology to enhance its performances in a unique way. When the group plays certain contemporary pieces, it dims the hall, and color emanates from their instruments through the open keys, blinking in sync with the music.

"It is a visual way to show the music," says Katy McKinney, 22. "It is just another way for people to experience the music." It's not exactly the Pink Floyd laser show -- each performer's lights don't change color -- but in the visually conservative world of classical music, it represents a move toward contemporary effects.

The innovation is driven, as it often is, by need. The flute quartet is not exactly a genre with bountiful repertoire. From its founding in 2003, the members of Lago (Italian for "lake") had to commission music to compensate.

"We had to make our own repertoire, and that has been part of the fun of it," says McKinney.

When group members Alan Berquist, 25, Alison Crossley, 22, Cecilia Ulloque, 25, and McKinney started brainstorming about repertoire last June -- in a New York coffee shop -- thoughts moved to presentation.

"We had heard that people had played around with fiber optics, and Daniel Bock, my fiance, said, 'I can build that,' " recalls McKinney.

It's just the sort of story that seems to crop up often at CMU -- a melding of technology and the arts. Bock, 27, is a Ph.D. student in physics at the university, specializing in sensors for astronomical devices. In that coffee shop, "he started drawing a circuit on a napkin," says McKinney.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Dan Bock, 27, a Carnegie Mellon University physics student, designed this LED lining that can attach to a flute and light up while playing. Click photo for larger image. Hear Dan Bock talk about the LED inserts he designed.

Soon he constructed a flute "insert," soldering 10 LED mounts and a microphone to a copper cladboard that slides into the body of the flutes. Total cost for four: about $300.

"When they play, the microphone picks it up, sends it through [a battery-powered box worn on a musician's hip], which amplifies the signals and drives the LEDS, basically turning them on and off," explains Bock.

The inserts are so featherweight they don't interfere with the playing. "We can feel a little resistance, but the audience can't," says Crossley. Adds Berquist, "It's pretty lightweight. There is enough [chord] for free movement," although occasionally it feels "funky" to play with the inserts, says Crossley during a rehearsal in CMU's Kresge Theater.

The quartet wants the light show to be viewed not as a gimmick but as a synaesthetic enhancement for new music.

"We wouldn't use this to play a Mozart quartet; that wouldn't be appropriate," says McKinney. "But this is mixed media."

The risks of bucking conservative concert hall tradition outweigh the potential for connecting to the audience. The ensemble has been using the LED display for three works: Mark Fromm's "Dances of the Lake," Enzo Gieco's "Carnavalito" and Marcela Rodriguez's "El Horizonte."

It's the sort of gumption and creative thinking that may help Lago flourish in the competitive entertainment market.

"These are students who really get it; they know that it is not enough to play well," says Marilyn Taft Thomas, interim head of the CMU School of Music. "They are looking for a niche, and I think they exemplify the way young musicians need to be thinking. You have to make your own path. It is not enough to play brilliantly. You have to have business savvy and market sense."

While the LED light show is a visual effect, it has roots in the practice of extended technique, such as plucking piano strings inside the case or singing when playing a wind instrument. Flutists have heartily embraced extended techniques, with such methods as flutter-tonguing, multiphonics, circular breathing and key noise.

"I think this is a very legitimate extension of the art form," says Thomas. "Why not be able to see the note?"

"We have gotten nothing but positive feedback for the lights," says McKinney. "The audience likes turning the house lights off. They like a different perspective. You have to do it in a completely dark room to do the light show."

Lago's next step is to commission works that take the lights into account from the inception of the composition. The group also is in the process of copyrighting the technology and hopes to improve it.

Until then, it is back to the traditional world, as Lago prepares to compete in the Fischoff competition in Indiana -- without the LEDs. But the foursome also looks forward to lighting up their next concert in more ways than one.