UNC musicologist Jon Finson will be awarded the 2013 Robert Schumann Prize by the City of Zwickau, Germany.
The biennial prize includes an award of 10,000 euros (about $12,900), split between this year’s two recipients. In addition to the monetary award, Finson will also receive a bronze medallion and a certificate.
Robert Schumann was a 19th century composer from Zwickau. The Robert Schumann Society evaluates nominees for the award, given since 1964. The Schumann Prize honors those who have promoted Schumann’s musical works and research, including conductors, scholars and institutions.
Finson is a professor of music and adjunct professor of American studies. His dissertation for the University of Chicago was “Robert Schumann: The Creation of the Symphonic Works.” He has both taught and published widely on the German composer, including the books Robert Schumann and the Study of Orchestral Composition: The Genesis of the First Symphony (Oxford University Press, 1989) and Robert Schumann: The Book of Songs (Harvard University Press, 2007).
He is well-known in Germany for his prize-winning edition of the first version of Schumann’s D-minor Symphony. Finson was a speaker in 2010 at the 20th Scholarly Conference devoted to Schumann research in Zwickau.
Ulf Wallin, Swedish violinist, will also receive the Schumann Prize. Wallin is a professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and a guest professor at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and the School of Music in Detmold.
Finson and Wallin will receive their awards in a celebration at the Robert Schumann House in June 2013.
