Dr Nicholas Pyall

Subject Leader - Musical Instruments

Dr Nicholas Pyall makes instruments after the Viennese guitars of the early and mid-nineteenth century, including those with extra bass strings, and by mid-twentieth-century North American guitars. In recent years his passion has led to him studying the instrument's development and societal history.

Nick's research traces the migration of the European guitar to North America and the emergence of steel as a stringing material. His previous teaching posts include Senior Lecturer in guitar making and Course Leader for the Musical Instruments BSc at the Cass School of Art, London Metropolitan University. In 2009 he was awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Council of Great Britain to pursue his doctoral studies. In 2010 he took up a residency at the Library of Congress, Washington DC, as a British Research Council Fellow. He received his PhD in 2014; its thesis entitled The Influence of Nineteenth Century Viennese Guitar in North America.

He has published in the journal of the BVMA and in the Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society.