We are pleased to announce Banjo Roots and Branches edited by Robert B. Winans has won the American Musical Instrument Society’s Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize.
The Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize is awarded annually for the most distinguished book-length work in English which best furthers the American Musical Instrument Society’s Goal “to promote study of the history, design, and use of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods.”
From the award committee:
“The 2020 Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize for best book-length publication that furthers the society’s mission is awarded to Robert B. Winans and colleagues for the book Banjo Roots and Branches. This collection presents research on the African and Caribbean roots of the banjo from new perspectives. It explores the banjo as a slave instrument, and finally its multiple uses as folk and minstrel instrument in the nineteenth and twentieth century from both black and white perspectives. In addition to Winans, the other authors are: Shlomo Pestcoe, Greg C. Adams, Nick Bamber, Chuck Levy, Saskia Willaert, Pete Ross, George R. Gibson, Jim Dalton, and Tony Thomas.”
