An empirical study examining differences in personality traits and general intellectual ability of academic musicians was conducted on a sample of Macedonian musicians, consisting of four different groups of instrumentalists, taken from four instrumental sections, respectively: a) piano (55); strings: violin, viola, cello, double bass (103); woodwind: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon (72); and brass: trumpet, trombone, French horn, saxophone (58). The sample included three age-based groups of musicians: music secondary school learners, music academy (university) students and adult professional musicians with music university degrees. Individual differences were examined employing four test instruments in total, including three personality inventories: R. Cattell's 16PF, H. Eysenck's EPQ, and Costa & McCrae's NEO PI-R, plus figural IQ test (TRL) as a measure of general intellectual ability. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) based on computing (performed using SPSS 16.0) revealed results generally in accordance with previously known facts from the field of personology of musicians, mainly from the Anglo-American scientific environment. In terms of second-order factors, piano players are characterised with Originality (brass players), Anxiety (both brass and woodwind players), Self-discipline, Emotional Instability and Higher Intelligence. String players show Originality (brass players), Anxiety and Emotional Instability as well, plus Introversion. Woodwind players' attributes emerge pretty similar to string players: Originality (compared to brass players), Introversion and Anxiety. Finally, brass players emerge as the most distinctive profile in comparison to other groups of instrumentalists, showing Extraversion, Conventionality, Emotional Stability, Adjustment and Lower Intelligence.
