The Clyde Duncan Prize

This award commemorates the life and career of Clyde Duncan, professor of music at Lawrence from 1947-84. An accomplished performing artist and musicologist, Professor Duncan played a major role in creating bridges between the college and the conservatory of music. The award goes to an upperclass student with broad interests and abilities that combine music with literature, aesthetics, and culture. Helen Panshin receives the Duncan Award in recognition of her marvelous musick(ology)ing in a great number of musicology courses, as well as her weaving of musicological practices into the fabric of her intellectual, artistic, social, and political life. She possesses a remarkably strong, clear voice as an academic writer, and her musical performance as a keyboardist is deeply informed by her musicological interests. An avid concertgoer and wide reader of music criticism and cultural and political writings, Helen consistently draws illuminating and thought-provoking connections among elements of her musicology coursework and to other things she has read, listened to, or performed, often bringing attention to new sources of information and ideas.