By Lanita Goins, University Relations
Aaron S. Allen
Contact: 336-334-3890
Posted 5-5-11
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Dr. Aaron S. Allen, an assistant professor of musicology in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, has been awarded a 2011 Rome Prize.
The Paul Mellon Post-Doctoral Rome Prize will allow Allen to spend 11 months in the Italian capital conducting research for his upcoming book, “Fidelio in Italy: Reception, Historiography and the Crisis of Nineteenth-Century Opera.”
He is one of three scholars awarded a Rome Prize in the Modern Italian Studies category. The prize includes a stipend plus room and board and an office at the American Academy in Rome.
A UNCG faculty member since 2007, Allen conducts historical research on Ludwig van Beethoven.
“My initial interest in him was because so many people are familiar with him,” Allen explained. “It’s a way of connecting with people, of making historical research in music more accessible.”
But the inspiration for his research into Italian reception of the German composer’s only opera, “Fidelio,” came when a book fell — literally — into Allen’s lap.
“When I was choosing a dissertation topic, I was looking at a variety of topics,” he said. “It just so happened a nineteenth-century Italian music dictionary literally fell off the shelf. I said ‘Gee, I wonder what this dictionary says about Beethoven?’”
Allen read the entry and found inconsistencies between popular assumptions about the composer, what historians know and what 19th-century Italians thought about Beethoven. Allen’s dissertation was about the Italian reception of all of Beethoven’s works through the early 1860s.
He’ll use the Rome Prize to focus on “Fidelio” and to expand his research chronologically through the 1880s. The late 19th century was a time when Italian critics were looking for ways to reinvigorate opera in the context of the recently unified nation of Italy.
For Allen, the award not only gives him an opportunity to write and do further research, but it also highlights the diversity of the faculty of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
“Music study at UNCG is not just about performance,” Allen said. “This award shines a light on UNCG and shows that there are scholars of music as well. Not all art scholars are necessarily practicing artists. I think this prize is a reminder that UNCG has a vibrant community of arts researchers as well as arts practitioners.”
Aaron, who earned bachelor’s degrees in music and environmental studies from Tulane University and holds a doctorate in music from Harvard University, also studies ecomusicology and is a cofounder and the chair of the American Musicological Society’s Ecocriticism Study Group.
The American Academy in Rome, founded in 1894, awards the Rome Prize to about 30 artists and scholars each year through a national competition. The recipients represent the highest standard of excellence in arts and the humanities.
