Switzerland honors Portuguese musicologist

Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco was President of the Portuguese Society of Musicology for many years (1992-2006), as well as Vice-President of the International Council for Traditional Music (UNESCO) from 1997-2001 and again since 2009.

Her academic research and the focus of her numerous publications are primarily on the musical traditions of Portugal and the Middle East. She is currently leading research projects on Portuguese jazz and Celtic influences on the music of Galicia and northern Portugal. Her most recent publications include the four-volume Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no Século XX (2010), Music and Conflict (2010) and Traditional Arts in Southern Arabia: Music and Society Sohar, Sultante of Oman (2009).

Since 2007, the Glarean Prize has been awarded every two years to scholars who have distinguished themselves through an outstanding oeuvre in the field of European music historiography and whose research activities take appropriate account of issues relating to the publication and distribution of music.

The Glarean Prize is financed by funds donated by the Basler
music historian Marta Walter (1896-1961) bequeathed to the SMG in her will. Previous winners of the Glarean Prize are Karol Berger (Stanford), Martin Staehelin (Göttingen) and Reinhard Strohm (Oxford).

The legacy also made it possible to create the Jacques Handschin Prize, also endowed with CHF 10,000, which aims to promote young researchers. Previous winners are Giovanni Zanovello (Bloomington) and Bruno Forment (Brussels). This prize for young researchers will be awarded next year.

Presentation of this year's Glarean Prize:
Thursday, December 5, 2013 in Bern, 6.15 p.m.
Main building of the University of Bern (cupola room no. 501), Hochschulstr. 4, 3012 Bern