The College Music Society (CMS) Southern Chapter officially renamed the Student Paper Award as the Kushner Award in honor of professor emeritus of musicology and former president of CMS, Dr. David Kushner.
CMS was founded in 1958 as an organization dedicated to promoting music teaching and learning as well as serving as an agent of change by addressing concerns facing music in colleges, conservatories, universities and communities. Kushner was one of the founding members of CMS Southern Chapter. He said the goal was to create an all-encompassing organization in the South that would cover music in its many dimensions, including performance.
The Kushner Award is given in recognition of students who write and present papers based on research in music. Kushner said that not only has he enjoyed presenting papers to CMS, but that many of his students have previously been honored with this award.
“I always recommend that students get involved in and start writing papers for professional organizations,” said Kushner. “The feedback they receive is invaluable.”
The annual CMS conference in February 2015 was held at the Mississippi University for Women where Kushner had his very first job more than 50 years ago. There, Kushner was surprised with the renaming of the award and was then able to present it to the 2015 winner.
“It feels good,” said Kushner. They could have chosen to name the award for a number of active CMS members, so I am most appreciative that they surprised me, here of all places.”
