Flow and aerosol dispersion from wind musical instruments

In the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, many live musical activities had to be postponed and even canceled protect musicians audience. Orchestral ensembles face a particular challenge contamination, because they are personally heavy instrumentally diverse. A chief concern is whether wind instruments vectors contamination through aerosol dispersion. This study, made possible by participation members The Philadelphia Orchestra, brings insight into modes production early life aerosols human origin emitted instruments. We find that these produce levels comparable normal speech in quantity size distribution. However, exit jet flow speeds much lower than violent expiratory events (coughing sneezing). For most instruments, decays background indoor-air at approximately 2 m away from instrument's opening. Long range dispersion is, thus, via ambient air currents.