Sounding Brass

Murray Campbell studied Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed to the teaching staff there in 1971, and in 1985 he founded the University's Musical Acoustics Research Group. He is now Professor Emeritus and Senior Professorial Fellow at Edinburgh, where he continues to carry out research on the acoustics of wind instruments. He has co-authored three textbooks on musical acoustics, including The Science of Brass Instruments (Springer, 2021). He is an enthusiastic amateur musician, performing regularly on cornett with the Edinburgh Renaissance Band and on trombone with the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Arnold Myers is Senior Research Fellow at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Professor Emeritus of the University of Edinburgh. He read Physics at St Andrews University and received a doctorate from Edinburgh University for investigating acoustically-based techniques in the taxonomy of brass instruments. He was an editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Brass Instruments (2018) contributing 86 of its articles, and one of three authors of The Science of Brass Instruments (Springer, 2021). He was formerly Director of Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments; he currently researches at the interface of acoustics and the history of brass instruments.

Joël Gilbert read Physics and Acoustics at the ENS of Fontenay aux Roses and at Le Mans University. He received a doctorate from Le Mans University for investigating acoustics of reed musical instruments. He was Directeur de Recherche CNRS in the Acoustic Laboratory of Le Mans University until his untimely death in May 2022. Joël was not only an inspired researcher in acoustics but also an excellent and dedicated trombonist. He combined these twin passions in his work on the physics of brass instruments and was responsible for several important advances in this field. He was a co-author of The Science of Brass Instruments (Springer, 2021).