EFDSS to receive international lifetime achievement award
14th January 2016
National folk arts development agency, the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), has been named as one of the 2016 recipients of a prestigious international lifetime achievement award from Folk Alliance International.
Chief Executive Katy Spicer will receive The Elaine Weissman Lifetime Achievement award on behalf of EFDSS during the opening evening of the 28th annual Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas, USA, on Wednesday, February 17, 2016.
The award is named for one of the founders of Folk Alliance International, which is the world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry. Each year, the awards are presented to a living recipient, a memorial recipient and an active organisation and are determined by a select international panel.
Past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards include Pete Seeger, The Weavers, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Robert Johnson, Bessie Jones, Alan Lomax, The Newport Folk Festival, Old Town School of Folk Music, National Council for Traditional Arts, and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, among others.
EFDSS Chief Executive Katy Spicer said: “As an organisation, we are thrilled to be recognised for our work in preserving, promoting and disseminating traditional English folk arts.
“To join such esteemed organisations such as the American Folklife Center and folk luminiaries as song collector Alan Lomax is a great honour.”
