DAHA’s Michael Beckerman Receives Prestigious Gratias Agit Award
The Dvořák American Heritage Association congratulates Professor Michael Beckerman on the occasion of his receiving the prestigious Gratias Agit Award of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a ceremony held on December 7th at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City. The annual award honors outstanding individuals who contribute to spreading the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Czech culture abroad.
Professor Beckerman, Carroll and Milton Petrie Chair, Collegiate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at New York University, and Vice President of DAHA, has a long and distinguished career in musicology, exhibiting a lifelong passion for music of the Czech lands. From the DAHA platform he has shared invaluable and ever-expanding insights into Czech music, composers, and musicians through compelling performances, lectures, and recently, “From DAHA with Love” – an online selection of memorable moments in Czech music that inspired our followers through many months of the pandemic.
We share here some of the accolades Professor Beckerman has received and invite you to join us for future DAHA programs in which the knowledge of our esteemed colleague and inspiring leader is shared with all.
Congratulations Mike!
“...Czech music has been one of the most important forces in my life. I treasure the sounds and personal connections that have become part of my life through my study of such figures as Janáček, Michna, Dvořák, Gideon Klein, Mysliveček, Kaprálová, Martinů and Pavel Haas...”
“(Prof. Beckerman’s) deep understanding of Czech composers, his inspiring and provocative reflections on the works of Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, as well as more contemporary composers, have opened the world of Czech music to millions of people worldwide.”
“The lifelong passion of Professor Michael Brim Beckerman has been a true blessing for the Czech music and musicology scene. His caring yet critical approach towards classical music written and performed in the past half-millennium by musicians and composers from what is today Bohemia and Moravia, is inspiring.”
MICHAEL BECKERMAN is Carroll and Milton Petrie Chair, Collegiate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at New York University, and Vice-President of the Dvořák American Heritage Association (DAHA). He has written many studies and several books on Czech music topics, including New Worlds of Dvořák (W.W. Norton, 2003), Dvořák and His World (Princeton University Press, 1993), Janáček and His World (Princeton, 2004), Janáček as Theorist (Pendragon Press, 1994), and Martinů's Mysterious Accident (Pendragon, 2007), as well as articles on subjects such as Mozart, Brahms, film scoring, music of the Roma (Gypsies), exiled composers, and music in the camps. Dr. Beckerman has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times and was a regular guest on Live from Lincoln Center and other radio and television programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He is a recipient of the Dvořák Medal and the Janáček Medal by the Czech Ministry of Culture, and is also a Laureate of the Czech Music Council; he has twice received the Deems Taylor Award. He served as a Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University (2011–2015) and was The Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence at the New York Philharmonic (2016-18). In 2014, Dr. Beckerman received an honorary doctorate from Palacký University in the Czech Republic. This year, he was awarded the Gratias Agit Award from the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Harrison Medal from the Society of Musicology in Ireland.
READ MORE
Czech Center New York: Professor Michael Beckerman received Gratias Agit Award
Radio Prague International: “Prof. Michael Beckerman receives Gratias Agit Award for promoting Czech music abroad.”