Oxford musicologist wins Balzan Prize

An Oxford University musicologist has won a 2012 Balzan Prize . Professor Reinhard Strohm, an emeritus professor of music in the Music Faculty, was praised by the prize committee for extensive research on the history of European music from the late Middle Ages to the present. The Balzans are awarded each year in a variety of fields and are given by a foundation based in Milan and Zurich, Switzerland. Professor Strohm was Heather Professor at Oxford from 1996 to 2007. Before that, he held posts at King's College London and Yale University. His research interests include eighteenth-century Italian opera; late-medieval music and its social context; and modernist/postmodernist debates in musical historiography. Professor Strohm said: 'When hearing the incredible news I spontaneously thought about my teachers and about the colleagues and students in the Music Departments where I have worked.