Awards / Grants
The Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize
One of two publication prizes, the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize is awarded for the most distinguished book-length work in English which best furthers the Society's goal "to promote study of the history, design, and use of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods." The first award in this category was given in 1989 and has been awarded in odd-numbered years thereafter. In 2009, the Board of Governors elected to make it an annual award.
The prize consists of the sum of $500 and a certificate, and the winner is announced at the Society's annual meeting and in the Society's Newsletter. Nominations (including self-nominations) and copies of the book nominated should be submitted by November 15.
2023 Recipients
Murray Campbell, Joël Gilbert, and Arnold Myers; Robert Adelson
The Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize is awarded annually for the best book-length publication in English that furthers the goals of the Society. The prize committee has made two awards for 2023, for two equally distinguished, but very different, contributions to organology: Murray Campbell, Joël Gilbert, and Arnold Myers for The Science of Brass Instruments (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2021); and Robert Adelson for Erard: A Passion for the Piano (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).
Previous Recipients
Receipient Name | Year | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
Matt Brennan | 2022 | Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit (Oxford University Press, 2020) |
David Lasocki | 2021 | Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Flute: Recorder, Voice Flute, and Traverso (Instant Harmony, 2019) |
Robert Winans | 2020 | Banjo Roots and Branches (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018) |
Pascale Vandervellen | 2019 | The Golden Age of Flemish Harpsichord Making: A Study of the MIM’s Ruckers Instruments (Brussels: Musical Instruments Museum, 2017) |
Michael Fleming and John Bryan | 2018 | Early English Viols: Instruments, Makers and Music (London: Routledge, 2016) |
Christopher Page | 2017 | The Guitar in Tudor England: A Social and Musical History (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015) |
Rollin Smith | 2016 | Pipe Organs of the Rich and Famous (OHS Press, 2014) |
Stephen Cottrell | 2015 | The Saxophone. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013) |
Sabine K. Klaus | 2014 | Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, vol. 1, Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 2012) |
Robert Bigio | 2013 | Rudall, Rose & Carte: The Art of the Flute in Britain (London: Tony Bingham, 2011) |
Mauricio Molina | 2012 | Frame Drums in the Medieval Iberian Peninsula (Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 2010) |
Albert R. Rice | 2011 | From the Clarinet d'Amour to the Contra Bass: A History of Large Size Clarinets, 1740-1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) |
Ingrid Maren Furniss | 2010 | Music in Ancient China: An Archaeological and Art Historical Study of Strings, Winds, and Drums during the Eastern Zhou and Han Periods. (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2008) |
Nick Collins and Julio d'Escrivan | 2009 | The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) |
Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes | 2007 | The Oboe (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004) |
Ardal Powell | 2005 | The Flute, The Yale Musical Instrument Series (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002) |
Matthew Spring | 2003 | The Lute in Britain: A History of the Instrument and Its Music (Oxford University Press, 2001) |
Bernard Brauchli | 2001 | The Clavichord (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) |
Stephen Bicknell | 1999 | The English Organ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) |
John Koster | 1997 | Keyboard Musical Instruments in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1994) |
Stewart Pollens | 1997 | The Early Pianoforte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) |
Robert Barclay | 1995 | The Art of the Trumpet-Maker; The Materials, Tools, and Techniques of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Nuremberg (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992) |
Grant O'Brien | 1993 | Ruckers: A Harpsichord and Virginal Building Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) |
Martha Mass and Jane McIntosh Snyder | 1991 | Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) |
Edmund A. Bowles | 1991 | Musical Ensembles in Festival Books 1500-1800: An Iconographical & Documentary Survey (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989) |
Mary Remnant | 1989 | English Bowed Instruments from Anglo-Saxon to Tudor Times (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986) |