News Archive

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions' Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Prof Andrew Lawrence-King, and viola da gamba soloist Jordi Savall have won another prestigious award. The duo was awarded the Premio de la Música Spain's top music prize, for their recording of Scottish and Irish traditional music: Celtic Viol II.

This follows their great success earlier this year when, Lawrence-King, an early harp virtuoso, and Savall won the 2011 Grammy for Dinastia Borgia.

The Premio de la Música is awarded each year in various categories of classical and popular music, and is judged by the members of the Spanish Academy of Musical Arts & Knowledge, Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias de la Música.

In this recording, Jordi and Andrew are joined by Glaswegian bodhran-player Frank McGuire, whose subtle rhythms add a new dimension to this celebration of Gaelic music's history and traditions.

The first volume of the series, Celtic Viol I, in which Andrew and Jordi play as a duo, was an international classical chart-topping hit last year, and also won that year's Premio de la Música. It is a rare honour for the same artists to be chosen for such a prize in two consecutive years.

In 2010 Andrew Lawrence-King Came to Australia as part of his triennial touring with Musica Viva, bringing his own ensemble, The Harp Consort, and an Irish baroque stage-show, Carolan's Harp. His role within the Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions means that he will be in Australia much more frequently, collaborating with Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson in the Performance Program, investigating instrumental and vocal performance practices across the study period 1100-1800.

Between 30 Nov and 3 ^rd December 2011, Andrew will be a keynote speaker at the Musicological Society of Australia's 34 ^th Annual Conference which is to be combined with the 2 ^nd International Conference on Music and Emotions, all taking place at the University of Western Australia. (See https://www.music.uwa.edu.au/research/power-of-music/icme for details of the event.)

In addition to directing his own ensemble, The Harp Consort, Andrew Lawrence-King is principal Guest Conductor of Concerto Copenhagen, Scandinavia's leading period instrument ensemble. Andrew teaches Irish Harp at the Historical Harp Society of Ireland's annual summer school in Kilkenny, Scoil na gCláirseach. In addition to his University of Western Australia research position, he is also Professor of Early Harps at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London and tutor in Early Harps, Continuo & Baroque Opera at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Celtic Viol Volumes I & II are available on the Aliavox label. Carolan's Harp is on DHM.

Media references

Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson (UWA Music)  (+61 8)  6488 7176
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716