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A research fellow from The University of Western Australia has won a Grammy - music's answer to the Oscars.

Andrew Lawrence-King, Senior Visiting Research Fellow to the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, won the coveted award as harp soloist in the category of Best Small Ensemble Performance, performing alongside Jordi Savall.

The news follows UWA graduate Shaun Tan's Oscar win for his Best Animated Short Film The Lost Thing .

Dr Lawrence-King is an early music specialist and played a series of different harps in a lavish and extensive recording of Dinastia Borgia, a 500-year musical journey through the history of the Borgia family, beginning in Valencia, Spain.  The CD was directed by Jordi Savall.

Dr Lawrence-King's colleague Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson (Callaway/Tunley Chair of Music and Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions) said he was an important figure in baroque music and that UWA was extremely lucky to collaborate with him.

"He ran masterclasses for our students last May, in early music performance practice, and will return later this year for more projects during The Second International Conference on Music and Emotion," Professor Davidson said.

"Andrew is a true polymath, a brilliant person, who loves learning notoriously difficulty languages ranging from Finnish to Dgèrnésiais - the language of his native Guernsey, in The Channel Islands.  He read Mathematics at Cambridge and was also an organ scholar there," she said.  "He has trained as a countertenor and has established a stellar career playing many different continuo instruments, particularly the harp.  He now directs his own ensemble, The Harp Consort, and is highly sought after as a musical director of early operas."

In the Centre for the History of Emotions, Dr Lawrence-King is doing research with Professor Davidson on early 17th century opera performance practices.

The Grammys were established in 1959 by the US Recording Academy to cultivate understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contribution of recorded music to American culture.

Media references

Winthrop Professor Jane Davidson (UWA Music)  (+61 8)  6488 7176
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716