Barbara B. Smith, Mānoa ethnomusicologist and professor emerita, has been named one of two recipients of the prestigious 21st annual Koizumi Fumio Prize for 2009. The annual prize was established by the estate of the late Japanese ethnomusicologist Koizumi Fumio to honor outstanding colleagues in the field throughout the world. Smith is honored for her long-term contributions to the knowledge and understanding of the music and the people of Asia and the Pacific. The prize will be presented during a ceremony in Japan on May 27.
One of the American pioneers in the field, Smith founded the ethnomusicology program at Mānoa in 1960. The program has grown in both regular faculty and lecturers in Asian Pacific performance traditions and currently offers MA and PhD degrees.
In 1972, Smith developed and edited an education resource for world music—an entire issue of the Journal of the Music Educators National Conference which reached K–12 educators and classroom teachers nationwide. The resource was later re-issued as a book.
Beginning in the 1960s, she undertook one of the first systematic field research and music collection efforts among various cultures in Micronesia. Smith’s current project is repatriating sound recordings collected a half century ago to cultural institutions in Micronesia for local use.
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