THE LATIN GRAMMY CULTURAL FOUNDATION® ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF ITS RESEARCH AND PRESERVATION GRANT PROGRAM

 
Talented musicologists and educational institutions will receive a total of $20,000
for research and preservation of Latin music
  MIAMI (JAN. 26, 2021) — The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation^® announced the winners of its Research and Preservation Grant program. This program provides grants to music institutions, nonprofit organizations, musicologists, and researchers around the world who are enhancing and preserving Latin music heritage. This year, an eclectic group of institutions and scholars will receive this support. The four grants, with a maximum value of $5,000 each, support diverse initiatives: The Preservation Grants fund the archiving and preservation of Latin music and its unique customs, while the Research Grants support projects that emphasize historical and anthropological research, in addition to documenting traditions and Latin folklore.
 
"This year marked the most diverse applicant pool in the history of our Research and Preservation Grant program to date," said Manolo Díaz, Sr. Vice President, Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation. "We look forward to continue providing support to these projects that preserve Latin music and its legacy, especially as many organizations are faced with financial constraints."
 
Awarded Preservation Grants:

• Rafael Escalona Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia - "Arte, vida y obra del maestro Rafael Escalona" is a project in conjunction with the Facultad de Creación y Comunicación de la Universidad El Bosque. It seeks to preserve more than 174 physical files belonging to the Rafael Escalona Foundation in order to create a digital collection recounting, through transmedia tools, the musical, artistic and cultural legacy of Rafael Escalona. In this way, the project aims to enable people of all ages and interests to appreciate the collection, but by offering it in new user-friendly formats, the goal is to enable young audiences to participate and learn about music, culture and vallenato as a music genre from Colombia.
• The Latin American Music Center at The Catholic University of America, Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama and Art Washington, D.C., U.S. – Funding for "Digitizing and Documenting The Latin American Music Center and The Catholic University of America" will support necessary ongoing archival and cataloguing work at the Latin American Music Center (LAMC) at The Catholic University of America. The LAMC for Graduate Studies in Music was created in 1984 in cooperation with the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Music Council, when the University inherited a very exclusive collection of compositions and manuscripts. This collection includes the compilation of a complete and specialized library of scores, books, and recordings of Ibero-American music making it a special asset to those who study, teach, and perform this music. Through the Center, musicians from the Americas come together with the essence of their own cultures to investigate, exchange, develop, perfect, and promulgate their musical knowledge and gifts as a means of better understanding one another through mutual respect of the peoples and arts of our hemisphere.

Awarded Research Grants:

• Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina - "Registro de  canto con caja  en entornos acústico originarios" seeks to create a dialogue between the ancestral music of a region and the landscape in which it developed through acoustic research and the creation of audiovisual recordings that can be experienced using immersive technologies (virtual reality, binaural audio). Specifically, the goal is to record Canto con Caja (singing accompanied by drum)—an ancestral tradition of the Andean region—in a very rich acoustic space: the natural amphitheater at Quebrada de las Conchas national reserve in Argentina.
• María Alejandra de Ávila, Córdoba, Colombia – Through "Historia social del disco de banda tradicional en el Caribe Colombiano a través de sus actores”, de Ávila plans to produce — by compiling oral sources featuring the main actors — an interactive social history e-book of discographic productions recorded by traditional banda groups from the Caribbean region of Colombia from the 1960s through the 1990s. The book's objective is to highlight professional musicians who have remained unknown. 

A committee of experts from Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, and the United States selected the recipients among numerous qualified candidates. Since its inception in 2015 to date, the program has awarded more than $135,000 in grants to support projects, one of which received a Latin GRAMMY^® and GRAMMY^® Award.
 
ABOUT THE LATIN GRAMMY CULTURAL FOUNDATION:
The Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation was established by The Latin Recording Academy^® to promote international awareness and appreciation of the significant contributions of Latin music and its makers to the world's culture, and to protect its rich musical legacy and heritage. The Foundation's primary charitable focus is to provide scholarships to students interested in Latin music, as well as grants to scholars and organizations worldwide for research and preservation of diverse Latin music genres. Take action in supporting our mission by donating today via our Facebook page. For additional information, please visit us at latingrammyculturalfoundation.com. For the latest news and exclusive content, follow us at @latingrammyfdn on Twitter and Instagram, and Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation on Facebook.