Samantha Owens Named As Lilburn Research Fellow 2025

Music scholar Professor Samantha Owens has been awarded the prestigious Lilburn Research Fellowship for 2025.

Professor Owens will use the Fellowship to research and write a book on the history of brass bands in Aotearoa New Zealand from 1842 to 1920, while being based at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.

“Often referred to as the ‘working man’s symphony orchestra,’ these bands played a key role in the country’s popular music culture for both Māori and Pākehā, women and men,” she observes. Her project ‘Parading Communities’ will consider bands as a musical focus for a diverse range of groups including military regiments, workers, civic groups, religious denominations, and Māori communities.

Based in Wellington, Professor Owens is a highly respected musicologist who holds the position of Honorary Professor of Music at the University of Queensland. Widely published, her research has covered various topics including music in colonial New Zealand and the European Baroque period. She is thrilled and honoured to be taking up the Lilburn Research Fellow for 2025.

“It’s wonderful to be able to dedicate a whole year to researching and writing a book. Such opportunities are incredibly rare for New Zealand-based music historians.

“The National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library hold a wealth of directly relevant source material – including the papers of the Brass Band Association of New Zealand and an amazingly rich collection of historic concert programmes and photographs. Being based there will benefit my research enormously.”

Professor Owens will receive a $70,000 stipend, an office at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, and access to its collections.

The author and editor of several books, including the forthcoming Music in Colonial New Zealand Cities (co-edited with Kirstine Moffat), Professor Owens’ writing on New Zealand music has included studies of German travelling bands and choral music. She is also an experienced musician, holding a Bachelor of Music in Oboe performance, as well as receiving her Licentiate from Trinity College, London.

Professor Owens will formally take up the Fellowship in January 2025.

Lilburn Research Fellowship

The Lilburn Research Fellowship is funded by the Lilburn Trust, established by the composer Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) to support New Zealand music. The Trust is managed under the auspices of the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust. Lilburn also helped with the formation of the Archive of New Zealand Music at the Turnbull Library in 1974. The Turnbull is one of the pre-eminent institutional collectors of New Zealand music, including published and unpublished material relating to all aspects of music in this country.

“The Lilburn Research Fellowship was established in 2012 as a biennial award to encourage research about New Zealand music,” says Alexander Turnbull Library Music Curator, Dr Michael Brown. “Previous recipients have included composer Dr Philip Norman, music historian Chris Bourke, and, most recently, broadcaster and music writer Nick Bollinger.”

“This fellowship is unique in its specific support for New Zealand music research. We will very much appreciate having Samantha based here at the National Library, as she delves into the collections of the Archive of New Zealand Music and uncovers fresh insights into our musical past.”

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