Emeritus Professor of Music,
Professor Beverly Parker.

Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Beverly Parker was commended for her years of service to the former Musicological Society and to the SA Society for Music Research (SASRIM) at the society’s recent music research conference at the Tshwane University of Technology.

Chairman of SASRIM, Professor Zelda Potgieter, praised Parker’s work on the society’s journal SAMUS, which she edited from 1993 to 2005, and her work as Co-ordinator of the SASRIM programme committee for the last four years.

She said that ‘the musicological community is deeply indebted to’ Parker, and cited her ‘professionalism, efficiency, wisdom and long-suffering patience.’ She said that these qualities and her unreserved sharing of her ‘years of experience in matters pertaining to all aspects of the society’s functioning’ have benefited less experienced colleagues enormously.

Parker served as a Musicologist at UKZN from 1975 to 2007. Her publications concern a variety of fields within European and African music and tertiary music education, and she helped develop and teach two interdisciplinary courses.

She served as Acting Head, Head, and Interim Head of Music for over nine years and was a member of the Committee on Staff Development and Chair of the Academic Ceremonials Committee. She also served as a sexual harassment advisor.

The Musicological Society honoured her work as an Editor by dedicating a volume of SAMUS to her in 2007. She designed websites for the Society and SAMUS and for the UKZN Music Discipline.

She also served for several years on a committee of the South African Qualifications Authority and advised and served on review committees for the Universities of the Transkei, Venda, Witwatersrand, and Stellenbosch as well as the then Durban Institute of Technology.

‘It was very rewarding to be recognised at SASRIM’s AGM for the contributions I have made to the two music research societies,’ said Parker.