Valerie Austin is a professor of history and of music at Saint Andrews University in Laurinburg, NC, where she teaches courses in European history and the World Wars. As a musicologist and music educator her research areas include early instrumental music and 20th century American music, specifically the crossover between popular and ‘classical’ forms. With musical origins as a symphonic trumpet player, Austin specializes on the cornett and recorder. You may have seen her name on the board of the American Recorder Society, and she notes her favorite professional group is the International Guild of Town Bands and Pipers, to whose international gatherings she regularly travels to perform.