Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology, is on research leave while she works on a book-length manuscript about Haiti’s classical music tradition.
Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology, has been awarded a six-month Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. This new award funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, along with one she received last year from the Center for the Humanities, has provided Eldridge Stewart with two semesters of research leave to work on her book-length manuscript, Recital: Classical Music and Narrative Power in Haiti.
Eldridge Stewart, who often co-hosts live broadcasts of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for St. Louis Public Radio, researches the classical music tradition in Haiti. She has studied the country’s intensive summer music camps, which involve students of all ages and a staff of Haitian instructors and international volunteers. The camps are largely unknown in the mainstream music world, Eldridge Stewart said, but the model has been extremely influential on Haitian music culture.