Thanks to a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, Lois Kuyper-Rushing will travel to France on a research project to transcribe and create a critical edition of never-before-published vocal music by prolific twentieth-century French composer Eugène Bozza (1905-1991). With this award, she joins the legacy of more than 132 Fulbright recipients from Louisiana State University dating back to 1952.  

The Fulbright Program is an international academic exchange program whose goal is to increase mutual understanding and support peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Fulbright Awards, provided by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, enable recipients to teach, conduct research, or carry out professional projects internationally. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 90 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. 

Kuyper-Rushing, LSU Libraries’ Associate Dean of Public & Collection Services, is known as a foremost scholar of Bozza, a remarkably prolific composer of chamber music for wind instruments. His solo and chamber works are part of the standard curriculum in music schools throughout the world.  

Kuyper-Rushing’s interest in Bozza extends back to 1979, when she began researching his music for her doctoral dissertation at LSU. Following graduation, she continued working with Bozza’s music and life, and in 2020 her book, A Thematic Index of Works by Eugène Bozza, was published.  

“As an oboist, I was first drawn to Bozza because of how much music he wrote for woodwinds—flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon,” Kuyper-Rushing said. “I became even more interested when I discovered he had written as much, if not more, for brass and percussion instruments, in addition to a wide range of large ensemble works, vocal and chamber music, and pieces for the stage.” She finds his work to be technically challenging and filled with soaring melodic phrases. 

While Bozza is primarily known for his chamber music, Kuyper-Rushing will work to prepare much of his vocal music for publication.  Her Fulbright award will fund her fourth research trip to Valenciennes. Located in northeastern France near the Belgian border, Valenciennes is where Bozza spent much of his post-World War II career, and where many of his manuscripts are housed at a local archive located within Médiathèque Simone Veil de Valenciennes.  

Bozza set the work of a wide variety of poets in his songs, including the eighteenth-century Indian poet Rabîndranâth Tagore, Adrienne Blanc-Peridier—a woman renowned for her World War I poetry, and many unknown twentieth-century poets from Northern France.

Rather than adhering to a specific twentieth-century compositional style, Bozza tried his hand at many of the prevalent styles. This resulted in a body of work that is too eclectic to be easily categorized—an ambiguity that may have limited his wider recognition within a specific genre. 

“My hope is that, as a result of this research, vocalists will be introduced to the songs of this underappreciated composer and include them in their repertoire and that of the students in their studios,” Kuyper-Rushing said.  

To encourage this, Kuyper-Rushing is collaborating with LSU’s College of Music and Dramatic Arts on an upcoming recital that will feature the world premiere of Pièce sur le nom de Marcel Veaudeau (“Piece based on the Name of Marcel Veaudeau”) by Bozza—a work for violin and piano that she uncovered in the Bozza archive and edited and published in 2024. Although the recital is still in the planning stages, she expects it to include some of the vocal music she will have edited for publication during her time in France. The event is tentatively scheduled for spring 2026. 

Through her Fulbright award, Kuyper-Rushing will bring global recognition to LSU, and her efforts to make Bozza’s unpublished vocal music more available will offer fresh opportunities for research, performance, and discovery for herself and for others interested in this composer and his music. 

This is not an official Department of State publication. The views and information presented are the Grantee’s and do not represent the Fulbright Program, ECA, the Post, Fulbright Commission, or the host country’s government or institutions.