What is the TC-MA?
The TC-MA is organised within the European Acoustics Association, which represents the national acoustical societies of 30 countries. Members of the TC are working in the field of musical acoustics, music performance, sound perception and other related fields. It aims at bridging the gaps between researchers, instrument makers and musicians in order to enable fruitful collaboration between those groups.
The TC-MA is open for everybody who wants to join. It is a community mostly composed of scientists who meet at major European and international conventions. However, instrument makers as well as musicians are warmly encouraged to join, as their expertise and experience as well as their questions, problems, and observations are valuable input to any scientific debate.
The TC-MA was founded at the EAA convention in Seville in 2002 with the election of Murray Campbell and Domenico Stanzial as chairmen and David Sharp as secretary. It started its provisional operation with a TC meeting at the SMAC ‘03 in Stockholm, Sweden. The current board was elected in 2023 and consists of
- Chair: Vasileios Chatziioannou (Department of Music Acoustics, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna; chatziioannou@mdw.ac.at)
- Vice-chair: Charalampos Saitis (Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London; c.saitis@qmul.ac.uk)
- Secretary: David Sharp (Acoustics Research Group, STEM Faculty, Open University; d.sharp@open.ac.uk)
- Council: Henna Tahvanainen (Universiy of Bologna & Aalto University); Arina Epure (KU Leuven)
What are the goals of the TC-MA?
It is the main goal of the TC-MA to interconnect researchers and teachers from various fields, as well as instrument makers and musicians who are interested in musical acoustics, and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and teaching materials. Another important goal is to assist researchers and research groups, as well as other members who are searching for partners or appropriate funding opportunities, by collecting such requests and distributing related information online.
Other activities of the TC-MA include organising EAA workshops focused on specific topics of interest, and seminars in relevant fields of musical acoustics, aiming to act as a link between academic and industrial institutions. The TC-MA is also often called upon to organise relevant sessions at larger acoustical conventions and to communicate announcements to the public. The TC-MA can also provide a platform to facilitate the exchange of students and more experienced researchers between laboratories, to offer a portfolio of opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and to support teaching activities at a European level. In addition, the TC-MA provides a forum to input into the setting of European research goals by proposing fields of interest for future EU framework programmes.
Who would benefit from a membership in the TC-MA?
Established and early career researchers and teachers in the field of musical acoustics would all benefit from TC-MA membership, as would instrument makers, musicians and representatives of industrial companies, who also have much to contribute through their expertise and interests. Please feel free to contact any of the board members for more information on ongoing activities, planned meetings and current research issues.
How to join the TC-MA?
If you want to join the TC-MA, please contact any of the board members.
