Lionel Sawkins

Biography

Australian-born and London-based musicologist Dr Lionel Sawkins has been at the forefront of research into French baroque music for a number of years. His most significant publication, almost a lifetime’s work, is the Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande 1657-1726, published by Oxford University Press with the support of the British Academy. In 1982-83 Sawkins helped establish the Centre d’Information et de Documentation (Recherche Musicale) of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, at the same time contributing more than 400 citations (mostly of the motets of Lully and Lalande) to the Catalogue Thà matique du Grand Motet Français.

In 1996 the French Minister of Culture named Lionel Sawkins as Chevalier (later Officier) de l’Ordre des Arts and des Lettres in recognition of his ‘contributions à la diffusion de la musique française en Grand-Bretagne et dans le monde’.