CAPES Postdoctoral Research Grant for Ingrid Barancoski
Dr Ingrid Barancoski from the Villa-Lobos Institute at UNIRIO (Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) has just been awarded a postdoctoral research grant by the CAPES Foundation within the Ministry of Education in Brazil for her research project ‘The Influence of Nadia Boulanger in the Compositional Thought of Almeida Prado’ to be undertaken at Southampton. The project deals with the analysis of the correspondence exchanged between the Brazilian composer Almeida Prado (1943–2010) and the French teacher and conductor Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), with the objective of gathering data concerning the influence of Boulanger’s teaching on Prado’s music.
The letters of Almeida Prado addressed to Nadia Boulanger are kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, consisting of 222 documents dated between 1970 and 1979. The different subjects covered in the letters include Prado’s comments about Boulanger’s lessons; reports on musical works that he was composing; requests for advice on the interpretation of musical works; and original creative products mixed to the texts of the letters: poetic writing, drawings, and short original musical fragments. This exchange of correspondence started when Prado was studying in Paris (1969–73) and lasted until the death of the French teacher. Since the letters from Nadia Boulanger to Almeida Prado are mostly lost, the search for them is part of this project.
Dr Barancoski will stay in Southampton for 10 months (November 2015 – August 2016) and her activities will include a guest lecture, two lecture-recitals and a master class on interpretation of Prado’s piano works. She will work on her project with Professor Jeanice Brooks, author of the most recent monograph dedicated to Nadia Boulanger and the foremost British authority on the life and work of the French artist.