Katalin Koltai is a guitarist, researcher and arranger creating new technologies and repertoire. She is the inventor of the Open Frets Guitar
Her work as an innovative guitarist and practice-based researcher focuses on expanding the language of the guitar. She invented the Open Frets Guitar, an augmented design that uses magnetic fretboard technology to access new harmonic textures, timbres, and resonances. Katalin has been at the forefront of premiering works by leading composers and creating arrangements with radically novel features. Her versatile career weaves together performance, scholarly research, leadership, teaching, community music and theatre.
Katalin is dedicated to enriching the guitar’s repertoire and performance practice through creative composer–performer collaborations. In 2025, she premiered a new guitar work by Hans Abrahamsen in a joint lecture–recital with the composer at the Royal Academy of Music, and also served as Artist in Residence with the Ars Nova Ensemble (France) in a Diaphonique-funded project. In 2021-2022, she collaborated with György Kurtág on arranging selected works from Games for piano. Her collaborative work with composers explores extended idiomatic features and has generated numerous world premieres, including music by David Gorton, Scott McLaughlin, Gráinne Mulvey, Gregory Vajda, Benoît Sitzia, Georgi Sztojanov, Samu Gryllus, Máté Balogh and others.
Katalin has produced an extensive number of arrangements for solo guitar, featuring works by Bartók, Ligeti, Chopin, Saariaho, Ravel and Kurtág. She has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Kings Place, Budapest Music Centre and the Kuhmo Festival (Finland). Her recordings have been released by Hungaroton, Genuine and North/South Recordings/Naxos, and she has published music with Doblinger (Austria).
Since 2009 she has been the guitar soloist for the Hungarian State Opera and UMZE Ensemble. She is the artistic leader of Barefoot Musicians and has also collaborated with flautist Noémi Győri as part of the Classical Flute and Guitar Project.
Katalin Koltai holds a PhD from the University of Surrey and Master of Music degree from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and the Conservatorium Maastricht.
Her research has been published by Soundboard Scholar and Bloomsbury Academic, and she has presented at leading international conferences, including the Royal Musical Association, University of Cambridge, American Musical Instrument Society, International Guitar Research Centre and Guitar Foundation of America. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Royal Musical Association’s Practice Research Award (2024) and the American Musical Instrument Society’s Gribbon Research Award (2022).
Between 2023 and 2025, Katalin served as Honorary Research Fellow at Academy. She is the Chair of the Composer–Performer Collaboration Study Group of the Royal Musical Association and the Banjo–Mandolin–Guitar Working Group of the American Musical Instrument Society.
Beyond her work as a performer and researcher, Katalin has made significant contributions as a producer of musical theatre and a community music leader. Her dedication to widening participation and working with marginalised groups, particularly children in segregated Roma settlements, has earned her the Junior Prima Prize in Education (Hungary).