University news

An expert on Johann Sebastian Bach from the University of Glasgow has been awarded a prestigious accolade for his outstanding contribution to the scholarly study and performance of the German composer’s work.

Professor John Butt is to be the fifth winner – and only the first person who is both a performer and scholar – of the £10,000 Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize.

The Gardiner Chair of Music at Glasgow is also the musical director of the Dunedin Consort and has conducted the ensemble in numerous acclaimed recordings and performances of Bach’s work.

He said: “It is a great honour to join an exclusive band of experts, such as Andras Schiff and John Eliot Gardiner, who have been awarded this prestigious Bach prize by the Royal Academy of Music.

“Bach has always been a really fascinating musician to study and perform as his music is often thought of as being esoteric but also strangely affecting. As a result there will always be a great deal of interest in his work.”

Professor Butt’s Dunedin Consort will release a recording of Bach’s Mass in B Minor in May. He has also recently published Bach's Dialogue with Modernity: Perspectives on the Passions which attempts to reassess the significance of Bach's music in the contemporary world.

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For more information contact Nicolas White in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 3535 or email n.white@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 31 March 2010