U of I professor wins fellowship for study of violin in UK

URBANA, Ill. (AP) - A University of Illinois music professor has been awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Musicology professor Christina Bashford was awarded one of 188 humanities grants across the nation receiving $30.9 million. She will use the grant on a book project about the impact of the violin on Great Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

U of I Chancellor Robert J. Jones noted that the fellowship is one of the nation's more competitive humanities programs. The NEH awards an average of 79 grants a year out of 1,100 applications received.

Jones said that Bashford's 'œselection recognizes her outstanding scholarship in the field and we're proud to have her among our faculty.'ť

The book, 'œForgotten Voices, Hidden Pleasures: Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930,'ť examines a grassroots culture around making, playing and collecting instruments of the violin family. It follows the networks of middle-class women, working men and schoolchildren who developed a love for an instrument that democratized Britain and affected the nation's composition tradition.