The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble is a new music ensemble using mobile smart phones as primary musical instruments.

Founded by Assistant Professor Georg Essl in fall of 2009, the mobile phone ensemble explores new ways to make music with mobile phones. But rather than playing ring-tones, the devices are used to create new interactive sounds in live performance.

The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble belongs to the tradition of repertoire-based mobile phone ensembles such as the sibling ensembles at Stanford University (the original MoPho), the Helsinki MoPho, and the Berlin Mobile Phone Orchestra.

Their instruments of choice are iPhones and iPod Touches and they use custom-built wearable speaker systems.

You can see a video of the Ensemble in action at the U of M site.