Double award win for OU Music academics

The International Association of Music Libraries (UK & Ireland branch) have recognised publications by OU Music academics with the prestigious CB Oldman Award for outstanding works of music bibliography, music reference or music librarianship.

Emeritus Professor Trevor Herbert and co-editors Arnold Myers and John Wallace took the 2020 prize for The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Brass Instruments  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). The Encyclopaedia is the first significant dictionary on this subject for both specialists and non-specialists, with extensive coverage of brass instruments worldwide, providing wide geographic diversity and including historical context from ancient times to the present.

The Prize Committee commended this "…impressive volume which has significant broad use across the spectrum of students, teachers, players and researchers with significant inclusions of entries relating to classical music, sacred rituals, popular music, jazz, brass bands and military bands."

• Read more about Professor Herbert's research on the history of brass instruments.

Emeritus Professor Donald Burrows, Dr Helen Coffey, and John Greenacombe took home the 2021 prize for George Frideric Handel: collected documents. Volume 4, 1742-1750  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). This book is the fourth of a six-volume series stemming from the Collected Documents project that chronologically charts Handel's life and career through documentary sources.

The Prize Committee praised the work for continuing "…to provide an essential reference resource for Handel scholars and those with an interest in the eighteenth century and embodies enormous scholarly research."

• Find out more about OU Music academics' extensive Handel research.

Dr Martin V. Clarke, Head of Music at the OU, said: "The award of the C.B. Oldman prize recognises the field-leading nature of these publications and is a testament to the exceptional calibre of research undertaken by OU Music academics and their colleagues.

"We are grateful to the International Association of Music Libraries (UK & Ireland branch) for recognising this research and immensely proud of the wide-reaching impact these volumes continue to have."