Professor Owen Wright Awarded 2025 British Academy Derek Allen Prize
We are delighted to announce that Professor Owen Wright, Emeritus Professor of Musicology of the Middle East at SOAS University of London, has been awarded the 2025 Derek Allen Prize by the British Academy.
The prestigious Derek Allen Prize, awarded annually in rotation across the fields of musicology, numismatics, and Celtic studies, recognises outstanding scholarly contributions. This year, it honours Professor Wright for distinction in musicology.
Professor Wright's work has transformed the field by transcending traditional boundaries between ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory, and analysis.
The Derek Allen Prize Committee reflects:
“Since the 1970s, Professor Wright has specialised in the music and historical musicology of the Middle East, producing seven field-defining monographs alongside numerous chapters and articles. His work has transformed the field by transcending traditional boundaries between ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory, and analysis. Through editions, translations, commentaries, and interpretive surveys of major sources in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, he has addressed significant gaps in our understanding of these musical traditions”.
Reflecting on the recognition, Professor Wright commented:
“I was very surprised to find the spotlight unexpectedly turned on the corner of historical musicology that I inhabit… I regard this award as, in essence, a response to the achievements of my fellow researchers upon whose work I have constantly drawn.”
The British Academy committee highlighted Professor Wright’s meticulous textual scholarship, insightful contextualisation of theory and practice, and the breadth of his work.
Professor Wright first earned a degree in French from Leicester University before undertaking a second BA in Arabic at SOAS, where he later completed his PhD. His long academic career at SOAS included appointments as Lecturer and Reader in Arabic, culminating in his position as Professor of Musicology of the Middle East. He has also served in key leadership roles, including Head of the Department of the Near and Middle East and Chair of the Centre for Music Studies.
His research explores the historical evolution of the art-music traditions of the Islamic Near and Middle East, drawing on both theoretical writings and surviving documentation of practice, such as notations and song-text compilations. A Festschrift dedicated to his work, Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World, appeared in 2018. Among his recent publications are The Ottoman Classical Repertoire in Historical Perspective (Routledge, 2025), Music Theory in the Safavid Age (Routledge, 2019), along with a range of influential journal studies.
We warmly congratulate Professor Wright on this well-deserved honor and celebrate his enduring contributions to the study of Middle Eastern music and musicology.
Images: British Academy (banner), Anna Contadini (inset)
