Eduardo Sato, Ph.D. Candidate in Musicology, was recently awarded the Robert Walser and Susan McClary Fellowship from the Society for American Music. This prestigious fellowship provides a generous stipend for the Ph.D. Candidate recipient. According to their website, this fellowship is granted biennially and “recognizes academic achievement and future promise in the study of American music.”
We reached out to him to discuss his dissertation research and his thoughts on receiving this fellowship.
UNC Music: Can you tell us a little about the dissertation research you are doing?
Eduardo Sato: My research is centered on the transnational circulation of Brazilian music in the first half of the twentieth century.
I study the ways in which musicians, scholars, and politicians negotiated meanings for Brazil and its music when they crossed geographical borders. I center my analysis on case studies that connect music and nation to other social categories, such as gender, race, and economic status.
The intersectional examples include the travels of foreign composers, such as Darius Milhaud and Aaron Copland, to Brazil, and the international careers of Brazilian singers Elsie Houston and Vera Janacópulos.
UNC Music: What impact does the fellowship have on you?
Sato: It is a great honor to be awarded the Robert Walser and Susan McClary Fellowship from the Society for American Music. The recognition of my work from this institution is very meaningful to me as a scholar who works in developing a critical framework for the study of the pairing between music and nation.
UNC Music: How did you feel when you were awarded this fellowship?
Sato: I was thrilled with the notice that I was awarded the fellowship. This joyful feeling was even more significant when I attended the Society for American Music annual conference in Minneapolis to receive the award. I felt very humbled with the recognition from many colleagues (including several UNC graduate students), mentors and scholars I admire.
UNC Music: What are you most excited about this fellowship?
Sato: I am excited with the visibility that this fellowship brings to my work and to the opportunity to open broader dialogues with scholars across the field of the music of the Americas.
“I just want to thank the support from many people from the Music Department at UNC for supporting my work in many different forms,” Sato expressed. “It includes the academic faculty, the community of graduate students, and the staff.”
Congratulations on this well-deserved, phenomenal honor, Eduardo!
by Casey Mentch, class of 2024