Introduction
In 2024 the second call of the Pau Casals UNESCO Chair Research Grants is open for research projects in the following areas:
- The musical legacy of Pablo Casals, as a performer, conductor, composer and teacher.
- The humanistic legacy of Pablo Casals and the contemporary interpretation of the peace, democracy and human rights defence.
- Culture for the peace, human rights, democracy and social justice in the contemporary world.
- The role of music and culture as a fundamental intangible heritage for social cohesion, multicultural dialogue, and conflict prevention according with the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy.
The grants are not restricted to the figure of Pablo Casals but are open to any topics related to the values that the musician defended throughout his life, such as human rights, the culture of peace, international justice or the role of music and culture in conflict prevention and social cohesion.
“This wonderful universal language, music, should be a source of communication between all people.”
–Pablo Casals
Call
What proposals can be submitted?
Applications related to master’s or postgraduate projects, work associated with a doctoral thesis, or any research related to the topics of this call can be submitted.
Research proposals must not yet be developed. The development of the project will be carried out once the grant has been awarded.
Candidacies from any nationality are accepted.
Each granted research project will receive the amount of €2,000.
In addition to the financial aid, the Pau Casals UNESCO Chair offers:
- Support and assistance in the development of the project by the selection committee, the Pau Casals Foundation team and the UOC team.
- Dissemination and publication of the project through the communication media of the Chair, the Pau Casals Foundation and the UOC.
- Access to the Pablo Casals document collection located in the Nacional Archive of Catalonia.
- Publication of the research work on the Chair’s website and the possibility of publishing it on the Pau Casals Foundation and UOC websites.
- Support and advice in possible job publications.
Period for submission of applications:
from March 14, 2024 at 10:00 am
to May 12, 2024 at 11:59 pm
Notification of the decision of the selection committee to all applicants:
before June 14, 2024
The final work resulting from the research must be submitted:
before June 1, 2025
RulesRegistration formSelection committee
A selection committee shall evaluate the applications submitted by applying the assessment criteria set out in these rules and shall draw up the respective report. The members of the selection committee are:
Alfons Martinell
Doctor in Pedagogy from the UdG and a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the UAB. He is currently co-director of the Pau Casals Chair and member of the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (SDSN). He has been General Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is honorary director of the UNESCO Chair: Cultural Policies and Cooperation, and professor emeritus of the UdG.
Bernard Meillat
Musical advisor to the Pau Casals Foundation and artistic director of the Pau Casals International Music Festival. He has been director of Radio Classique in Paris (1991-2005) and Musiq’3 RTBF in Brussels (2006-2012).
Joan Fuster-Sobrepere
Doctor in History from the UPF and a degree in Philosophy from the UAB. He is currently an associate professor at the UOC, where he directs the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and co-director of the Pau Casals Chair. Founder and director of the Master in Humanities: contemporary art, literature and culture. He is part of the consolidated research group Identicat, and his research has focused on the political and cultural history of Catalonia in contemporary times and especially in the city of Barcelona.
Marc Gil
He holds a PhD in History from the UB and teaches Contemporary History and Current World at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the UOC. Specialist in contemporary history of the Spanish State (Francoism and transition) and in history of the current world (history of international relations). He has been awarded the Serra d’Or Criticism Prize for Research 2018 in the humanities category in recognition of his work Barcelona in the service of the “New State”. Depuration of the City Council during the first Franco regime. He is a member of the consolidated research group IdentiCat of the UOC.
Jordi Pardo
Cultural manager and General Director of Pau Casals Foundation. Graduate in Geography and History from the University of Barcelona; EMPA-MBA, Executive Master in Public Administration, and FGAP- Diploma in Management Function of Public Administrations from ESADE Business School, Diploma in Advanced Studies (DEA) at the University of Barcelona, Department of Social Sciences Didactics. He has been managing Director of the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona CCCB; Managing Director of the Empúries Museum and Archaeological Park. In the private sector he has directed and advised cultural projects, development and urban regeneration in different countries of Europe, America and Asia. He has been a member of the European Commission’s Committee of seven independent experts, who evaluate and select the European Cultural Capitals (European Capital of Culture. 2011-2016), and member of the UNESCO cultural policy expert group. UNESCO consultant for the Culture, Development and Governance program (2011-2015).
Núria Ballester
Graduate in Art History from the UAB and Master in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology from the UB. She is the Director of the Pau Casals Museum and has extensive experience in the fields of heritage management, conservation, research and dissemination. She is responsible for the management of the collections and documentary collection of Pau Casals.
Pepe Reche
Performer and researcher, teacher and disseminator, and manager of educational and cultural projects. French horn player specialized in early music (ESMUC) and PhD in Musicology (UAB) with the thesis The French horn quartet of the Pau Casals Orchestra. His fields of research interest are around the historical French horn players in Barcelona and their repertoires, as well as the study of the profession of musician between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. He has won the Musical Essay Prize of Juventudes Musicales de Cataluña (JM Catalonia) and FICTA Ediciones.
Projects awarded 2023
The selection committee has decided to award two research grants to the following projects:
The evolution of international protection mechanisms for musicians: a historical perspective
Project submitted by Laurence Cuny
Research context
The research is carried out as an associated work to the doctoral thesis “La liberté artistique: un droit cultural en quête de reconnaissance” that the researcher is carrying out at the UNESCO Chair in diversity of cultural expressions of the Université Laval (Quebec, Canada) and at the Université Paris 1 Sorbonne.
Research objectives
- Investigate the protection mechanisms for musicians with a historical perspective (since 1939)
- Identify the actors involved, their motivations and justification for protecting musicians and the role of the United Nations.
- Examine the solidarity networks for musicians at the time of Pablo Casals exile.
Research questions
Do actors involved in the protection of musicians today know about Pablo Casals commitment? What are their motivations for creating these mechanisms? Are they inspired by previous initiatives? How do they see the role of the United Nations? How does the United Nations recognize the role of the arts in promoting democracy and human rights? Has this always been the case? Are musicians in exile committed to freedom and democracy? Do they engage with the United Nations as Pablo Casals did at his time? Did Pablo Casals benefit from support networks during his exile?
From Festívola to the Prelude of El Pessebre. A first approach to the catalog of Pablo Casals’ musical work from his sardanas
Project submitted by Anna Costal and Albert Fontelles
Research context
The research project presented jointly by Dr. Anna Costal and Dr. Albert Fontelles is a project that will be carried out within the framework of the Research Group in Cultural and Musical Studies (GRECUM) of the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
Research objectives
The critical catalog of a composer’s musical work provides performers and researchers with a valuable resource for studying the legacy of an artist and, in turn, helps to disseminate it to a wider public. This project proposes the cataloguing of the six sardanas composed by Pablo Casals as a first approach to the typology of documents that could be applied to the whole of his compositional legacy. Based on this approach, the objectives of the project are:
- To catalogue and carry out a musicological study of the sardanas that Casals composed and premiered between 1908 and 1960.
- To study the reception and the national and international impact of these works in the 20th and 21st centuries.
- To promote this part of the catalog of Pablo Casals’ musical work to performers and researchers so that it can be more widely performed and disseminated.
- To make known to a wide public the value of Casals’ sardanas as a whole.
