Welcome to the home page of

Marcus McGuff

This page to satisfy the curiosity of my students and anyone else feeling particularly interested.

I live in Austin, Texas and I teach math at Austin Community College. Since joining the math department full-time, I have spent a lot of time helping the department with computers, software, and other technology related issues. In particular, I taught myself to use Mathematica software and have taught workshops for other faculty and tutors on how to use this software. (See the Mathematica Resource Pages I maintain, if you are interested.) I have also done occasional database and web design for the department and the college as well.

I am also a musician. My doctorate is in flute performance and I still enjoy playing the flute a lot. Since finishing college, I have specialized more and more in "historical performance" (or "early music"). This means that I play a one-keyed wooden flute (called a traverso or a Baroque flute), which is the type of flute that most of the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was actually written for (think Bach, Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, etc.). I have also studied the information we have about how this music was performed originally (what is called "performance practice" in early music circles). I find that this makes the music much more interesting and fun to play (as well as to listen to).

I perform with the period-instrument chamber ensemble La Follia as well as the Austin Bach Quartet. I have also experimented with the Irish flute and I still play the standard silver flute as well. I teach flute privately as well, both advanced modern (silver) flute and Baroque flute. (Contact me if you are interested in taking lessons.)

(Photos courtesy of Cecily Johnson.)