Music Professor Mattias Lundberg receives Royal Medal

Mattias Lundberg will receive H.M. The King’s Medal, 12th size with the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim “for outstanding contributions to popular education as a musicologist”. His area of specialisation in musicology is liturgical music from the Renaissance. Alongside his research and teaching, he devotes a lot of time to research outreach, or ‘third stream activities’ as they are sometimes known.

It all started in 2015 with the series “Den svenska musikhistorien” (“The history of Swedish music”), produced by Sveriges Radio. This was followed by the series “Fråga musikprofessorn” (“Ask the Music Professor”) in the channel P2.

“Working with Sveriges Radio is almost the same thing as teaching, but for the general public. I generally get more or less the same questions from students as I do in the programme,” Lundberg says.

Part of the job

From his point of view, working with radio programmes has become part of the job, alongside research and teaching. This might not have been possible in other fields, he points out.

“Most people can relate to music. People in Sweden are exposed to music every day, so it feels approachable to them.”

Mattias Lundberg looks forward to receiving the medal from King Carl Gustaf on 13 June.

“Being awarded this medal is very gratifying. I’m pleased that musicology and the humanities are receiving attention in this sort of context,” he says.

The Department of Musicology is one of the smallest at Uppsala University and one of the few departments of musicology in the Nordic region. The subject exists at other universities but often at a combined department with other disciplines.

Another medallist at the same ceremony will be Martin Kragh, researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University. He will receive H.M. The King’s Medal, 8th size with a bright blue ribbon, “for outstanding research in history and security policy”.