Reinventing the cello

Alex Eben Meyer

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The archetypal cello is a splendor of wooden design: Russet-stained maple sits under the ebony fingerboard, all in the service of teasing the richest possible sound out of four vibrating strings. All this artistry comes at a cost, literally—even setting aside instruments by legendary luthiers, professional cellos regularly go for well over $10,000. Attempts to build instruments out of cheaper materials often result in instruments with a lackluster sound, but that may now be changing, thanks to the innovative work of engineering major Elijah Lee ’27.

Together with his high school orchestra director, Lee is the cofounder of Forte3D, a company created with the goal of making carbon-fiber cellos on a par with professional-level wooden analogs but that aren’t quite as expensive. The secret, Lee says, is going back to the drawing board. 

Traditional instruments have been deeply shaped by the physical demands placed on them. “Wood instruments are a marvel of engineering,” Lee says. “On a cello, the strings can put upward of sixty pounds of force down onto the top of the instrument. It’s like a small child!” The physical properties of wood require certain shapes to handle this force while also maintaining acoustical balance, but other materials behave differently. “If you look at the top of one of our instruments, it’s concave instead of convex, which lets us couple the top and back with the sound post to get this really neat acoustical effect where the instrument is acting like a drum.” 

Materials like carbon fiber are compatible with modern, computer-aided design and manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing, so Forte3D has been able to experiment with different designs than would otherwise be possible. This, in turn, has led them to discover a range of different sonic possibilities. “We’re able to really tweak all the different aspects of the instrument to dial in different things we want to try and to be clinical about our experimentation in the acoustics realm.”

This might conjure an image of a carbon-fiber future where professional cellists all custom-order instruments tailored to their individual taste, but Lee insists he’s not trying to sideline classical technique. “There will always be a place for fine wood instruments,” he says. “There’s a beauty to their construction and a very long historical tradition. The market that we’re most interested in is education. It’s increasing the accessibility.” 

In addition to lower manufacturing costs, these instruments also have much lower maintenance needs than traditional ones, which makes it much easier for a budget-strapped school to provide a viable starter instrument to an eager new student. “I think that’s really important for retaining people, so they continue to play the cello, to learn music,” says Lee.