Jack Earnhart, a graduate student in Music Teaching and Learning at Eastman, was awarded a Special Opportunity Grant to support his project on addressing a common mismatch between the anatomy of the facial area that contacts a brass mouthpiece, and the conventional rim geometry used in most designs. To solve this issue, Jack developed a method for creating custom dental profiles to guide the design of individualized mouthpieces. The current prototype features a rim that molds in real time to the player’s unique dental structure during performance. The design was inspired by “boil and bite” mouthguards commonly used in contact sports. Players heat the mouthpiece in water, allow it to cool to a safe temperature, then play as usual during which the device adapts to the contours of the face. This self-molding process removes the need for in-person customization and provides a scalable, user-friendly solution with strong potential for future marketing and distribution. Jack gratefully acknowledged that the support from the Special Opportunity Grant was instrumental in this project, “The budget and timeline constraints that come with company product development are often antithetical to creative development. The Special Opportunity Grant gave me an opportunity to explore and develop novel manufacturing processes within my mouthpiece manufacturing company.”