Jaume Ayats, new director of the Music Museum of Barcelona

18/09/2012

Jaume Ayats holds a BA in Catalan Studies by the University of Barcelona and a PhD in History of Art, specialising in musicology, by the UAB. He studied ethnomusicology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is currently lecturer of ethnomusicology at the UAB and lecturer in violin at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona. He also lectures at the Higher School of Music of Catalonia (ESMUC).

His PhD thesis focused on sonorous expressions of masses in urban Europe and he has researched Catalonia's oral music tradition with the Folklore Research Group of Osona. He directs the research projects from the group Les músiques en les societats contemporànies-MUSC (Musics in Contemporary Society), a research group affiliated to the UAB Department of Art and Musicology.

In the past years he has published the books Els Segadors, de cançó eròtica a himne nacional (L'Avenç, 2011), Cantar a la fàbrica, cantar al coro. Els cors obrers a la conca mitjana del Ter (Eumo, 2008), and Córrer la sardana: balls, joves i conflictes (Rafael Dalmau Editor, 2006).

Jaume Ayats has also played as an instrumentalist in the Symphonic Orchestra of Barcelona, the National Orchestra of Catalonia and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Vallès. He was commissioned for the exhibit Veus de la Mediterrània and is co-author with Joaquim Rabaseda of the documentary Veus i sons de la Mediterrània. He also sings with the group La Nova Euterpe.

This year, Ayats was awarded the 2012 National Prize for Traditional Culture by the National Council for Culture and the Arts. It is the most important prize in the field of culture in Catalonia and was conferred on him for his "rigour and excellence in the study and dissemination of traditional music".

Ayats' appointment as director of the Music Museum of Barcelona and of the Robert Gerhard Centre forms part of the reorganisation process currently being undertaken by the Barcelona Auditorium.