THE CANADIAN UNIVERSITY MUSIC SOCIETY AND THE SOCAN FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE THE WINNER OF THE 2016 SOCAN FOUNDATION/MusCan AWARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF RESEARCH IN CANADIAN MUSIC
The Canadian University Music Society and the SOCAN Foundation are pleased to announce that Gordon E. Smith is the recipient of the 2016 SOCAN Foundation/MusCan Award of Excellence for the Advancement of Research in Canadian Music.
The SOCAN Foundation/MusCan Award of Excellence recognizes, on an annual basis, a mature scholar who has established a nation-wide profile in the field of research into Canadian music and its composers. The winner’s dissemination of research results demonstrably increases aural and cultural understanding of Canadian music among other musical scholars and among musical performers. It also leads to increased understanding of Canadian music among the general public for music, or among members of a younger generation of future audiences and musicians. More information on the award itself is available on the MusCan website.
Gordon E. Smith holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Toronto and is professor of ethnomusicology and musicology in the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University. He was Director of the School of Music at Queen’s from 2003-2006, and more recently has served as Associate Dean and Vice-Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science. He is currently the Interim Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. Dr. Smith’s research focuses on historic and current issues of representation in Canadian ethnomusicology. He has published articles and reviews in various journals, including The Canadian University Music Review, World of Music, American Music, Ethnomusicology, The Yearbook for Traditional Music, Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de la recherch en musique and The Canadian Journal for Traditional Music. He was also the Editor of the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music from 2000-2006, oversaw the journal’s transformation to a fully peer-reviewed publication, MUSICultures, in 2007, and was its Editor until 2011. He is co-editor of the book, Istvan Anhalt: Pathways and Memory (2001), and also of Folk Music, Traditional Music, Ethnomusicology: Canadian Perspectives, Past and Present (2007), Around and About Marius Barbeau: Modelling Twentieth-Century Culture (2008), and Musical Traditions, Culture and Contexts (2010). Most recently, Dr. Smith was guest editor of Perspectives, People, and Places: Essays in Honour of Carl Morey, a theme issue of Intersections (Canadian Journal of Music/Revue canadienne de musique), which was published in 2015. His current research is focused on music in Indigenous contexts, with particular emphasis on intergenerational connections around music, resurgence and healing in Mikmaq communities in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
The Canadian University Music Society gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support of the SOCAN Foundation in the awarding of this prize.