We are excited to share that Yishai Rubin, a Ph.D. student in musicology, has been awarded a Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant from IU’s Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA). The $3,500 grant will support Rubin’s research trip to the United Kingdom in summer 2025, where he will conduct archival work at the British Library in London.
Rubin’s research focuses on the life and career of Johann Peter Salomon (1745–1815), an underexplored figure in eighteenth-century European music history. Best known for arranging Joseph Haydn’s celebrated visits to England and helping to shape London’s burgeoning public concert scene, Salomon was also a violinist, composer, and impresario with deep ties to major musical figures of his time, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Many aspects of Salomon’s early career, however, remain obscure—especially his fifteen years as concertmaster at the court of Prince Henry of Prussia. Rubin’s archival work aims to uncover new material about this lesser-known period, as well as to locate information about Salomon’s largely lost compositional output and his interactions with key musical families like the Bachs and the Bendas.
The British Library holds several promising collections for this line of inquiry, including the papers of William Ayrton (1777–1858), a music critic and personal friend of Salomon’s who inherited part of his estate. With digital access currently limited, on-site consultation is essential for advancing this research.
We congratulate Yishai Rubin on this prestigious award and look forward to the discoveries his summer research will bring to light!
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