Egyptian Composer Aziz El-Shawan’s Career and the Loeb Musical Library Collection of El Shawan's Musical Manuscripts

The Harvard Music Department and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies present

Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco
Professor of Ethnomusicology, Director of the Instituto de Etnomusicologia – Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; and President of the International Council for Traditional Music.

Please join us for a reception following the talk in the Spalding Room, Loeb Music Library.

The daughter of prominent Egyptian composer Aziz El-Shawan, Professor Castelo-Branco received her doctorate from Columbia University, taught at New York University (1979-1982), and was visiting professor at Columbia University, Princeton University and Chicago University. She has carried out field research in Portugal, Egypt and Oman resulting in publications on: cultural politics, musical nationalism, identity, music media, modernity and music and conflict.

Recent publications include: Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no Século XX (4 vols) (ed.). Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores/Temas e Debates (2010); Music and Conflict. (co-editor with John O’Connell and author of the Epilogue), Urbana: Illinois University Press (2010); Traditional Arts in Southern Arabia: Music and Society in Sohar, Sultante of Oman (with Dieter Christensen). Berlin: VWB Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung (2009); The “Politics and Aesthetics of Two-Part Singing in Southern Alentejo,” in Ardian Ahmedaja & Gerlinde Haid (eds.) European Voices: Polyphonic Singing in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Viena: Bohlau (2008). She has been president of the International Council for Traditional Music since 2013;  and served as: Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology (2007 – 2009) and of the International Council for Traditional Music (1997-2001 and 2009-2013); Vice Chancellor of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2007-2009). Castelo-Branco is a recipient of the Glarean Award for music research of the Swiss Musicological Society (2013), the Gold & Silver Medals for Cultural merit of the City Halls of Lisbon and Cascais, respectively (2012 & 2007), and the Pro-Author Award of the Portuguese Author’s Society (2010).

This talk & reception are free and open to the public.

Co-sponsors: Harvard Department of Music, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Contact: Lesley Bannatyne