Professor Karette Stensæth has been awarded the Researcher Association's (Forskerforbundets) Brainpower Prize (Hjernekraftprisen) for 2023.
She received the award "for her groundbreaking research and her many years of work with music therapy in health and care work."
Stensæth is the head of the research centre CREMAH (Centre for Research in Music and Health) at the Norwegian Academy of Music and has extensive experience as a music therapist, researcher, and educator.
In the past year, her work has gained public attention through the series "Demenskoret” (The Dementia Choir), which aired on NRK1 in the spring of 2023 and is set to return for a new season in early 2024.
"Behind this is a long-standing, groundbreaking research that has had significant societal importance," writes the Researcher Association.
Stensæth has also led the Norwegian part of the research project HOMESIDE, an international study of the effects music and reading can have on people living with dementia and their relatives. The results were published this fall in the prestigious journal eClinicalMedicine, part of The Lancet Discovery Science.
The Brainpower Prize from the Researcher Association is awarded to one or more researchers who, through their knowledge work, have made a significant contribution to society. This is the tenth time the prize has been awarded, the first time being in 2014.
The prize is 200,000 Norwegian kroner, along with a diploma by the artist Lars Fiske.
Stensæth was nominated by the leader of the Researcher Association at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Anders Eggen.
