Professor of musicology and ethnomusicology Alejandro L Madrid recently received the American Musicological Society’s 2018 Philip Brett Award for his article, “Secreto a Voces: Excess, Performance, and Jotería in Juan Gabriel’s Vocality.”
Madrid is a cultural theorist who specializes in music and expressive culture from Latin America and Latinos in the United States. He focuses on issues of homophobia and masculinity through art and popular music, as well as sound art from the 20th century.
“The selection committee was unanimously impressed with the detail and sensitivity of your exploration of queer embodiments and affects in a multi-generational popular culture outside of Anglo-American markets, and with your skillful melding of personal reflection, video archival materials, and online ethnography,” the awards committee wrote about Madrid’s selection.
The article was published in GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies and focuses on Juan Gabriel, arguably the most successful Mexican singer, songwriter and producer of the last three decades of the 20th century.
The American Musicological Society was founded in 1934 and accomplishes its goal of supporting scholarly developments in music through research, teaching, and learning initiatives. The Philip Brett Award, sponsored by the society’s LGBTQ Study Group honors exceptional musicological work in the field of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender/transsexual studies completed during the previous two calendar years, in any country and in any language.
The award will be presented at the society’s annual conference in Boston, Mass., which will also commemorate the 30th Anniversary of its LGBTQ Study Group. Madrid was also recently elected to the American Musicological Society’s executive board, serving as a director at large.
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