Tribute: Anthony Seeger

Awarded by the IASA Executive Board in recognition of advocacy for the cause of audiovisual archives, communities and music

Presented in 2010 to ANTHONY (TONY) SEEGER

Anthony Seeger has been a long-standing advocate and champion for the cause of audiovisual archives. His positioning as archive director in a number of world class institutions, director of a music publishing company, inspirational teacher and lecturer, and fieldworking anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, has established him as a leader in the areas of intellectual property rights and performance. His writings on these issues have been influential beyond archivists to scholars and activists in a wider world. His abilities and his stature in the field helped establish the Research Archives Section in IASA. He is one of those unique individuals whose wide range of activities has reflected the practical application of one who has truly ‘walked the talk’. Kevin Bradley – President

And this is what his good friend and colleague, Shubha Chaudhuri (Archive and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, India), said about him (read out by IASA President, Kevin Bradley at the annual conference in Philadelphia in November):

“Anthony Seeger, anthropologist and ethnomusicologist, is one of those unique individuals who has played, and continues to play, many roles in the field of audiovisual archiving — as a researcher and fieldworker, record producer, teacher and director, and an active crusader for the cause of archives.

His work and his writings address a range of issues from the philosophical to the technical. The theoretical and analytic depth he brings to any issue is always accompanied by his involvement in issues of the nitty-gritty, the level of detail that audiovisual archiving entails, and reaches an audience beyond archivists to scholars and activists in a wider world.

As a researcher and fieldworker in the field of ethnomusicology, his research on the Suya of the Amazon has been highly acclaimed, but it is his relationship with the Suya that has been remarkable, demonstrating his views and beliefs in ethics and rights of performers and communities. His advocacy for the people he worked with extended beyond the Suya to the rights of indigenous people of Brazil.

Tony, as we call him, has been highly sensitive to the needs of the less fortunate and has made himself accessible, devoting time and energy to working with and consulting for archives in non-Western countries, always becoming a permanent support line for the people he has worked with.

His positions with archival institutions have ranged from the directorship of Smithsonian Folkways, Director of the Archives of Traditional Music in Indiana, Chair of the Committee for the Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology in India, to currently being Director of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives.

Within the field of ethnomusicology, as a distinguished professor, as the President of the International Council of Traditional Music and the Society of Ethnomusicology, Anthony Seeger has been an advocate and champion for the cause of audiovisual archives. These abilities and his stature in the field helped establish the Research Archives Section in IASA.

It is this range of perspective and experience that Tony brings, as a leader in the areas of intellectual property rights and performance, to the field of audiovisual archiving. He has not only lectured and written widely on these topics but his own work as a researcher, a director of a music publishing company and an active archivist have reflected the practical application of one who has truly “walked the talk”.