
I’m a classically-trained French horn player with a particular interest in historical instruments. I have played with period-instrument ensembles in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Austin, and across the US. You can find some recordings here (Mozart) and here (Telemann).
I often get asked if I study the physics of music. Until I got involved with period instruments, I hadn’t really been interested in this area of research. But it turns out the physics of brass instruments is fantastically complex, especially before the advent of valves on the modern instrument. One project with immediate practical applications is trying to reverse-engineer a Baroque horn which can play (in tune!) all the notes required by composers like Bach, without the aid of the hand in the bell. I’m currently working with a colleague at Indiana University to design such an instrument as a proof of principle.
While we were grad students at MIT, Joshua Batson and I made some educational videos on physics topics as part of the MIT + K12 Initiative. Since we are both musicians, we play brass instruments in tuxedos and look at the waveforms, and demonstrate the Doppler effect by playing a trumpet out of a moving car. Amusingly enough, we now write papers together on machine learning.