Congratulations to Curtis's 2023 GRAMMY Winners!
The 2023 GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony was held on Sunday, February 5, at the Microsoft Arena in Los Angeles. Among those nominated for awards this year were several celebrated faculty and alumni of Curtis who stand in the front rank of classical musicians around the world. Critically acclaimed ensemble Time for Three and renowned conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin won awards.
Alumni Nicholas Kendall (Violin ’01) and Ranaan Meyer (Double Bass ’03) and violinist Charles Yang of Time for Three won Best Classical Instrumental Recording for their recording Letters for the Future, under the baton of Xian Zhang with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The trio also performed on the Kevin Puts Contact recording, which won Best Contemporary Classical Composition with Maestro Zhang and The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Michelle Cann (Piano ’13), Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at Curtis, was the featured soloist on Works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman with the New York Youth Symphony, which won the GRAMMY for Best Orchestral Performance. Ms. Cann, a champion of Price’s music, performed the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, the premiere recording of the composer’s newly-discovered original orchestration.
Mentor conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, internationally renowned music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and The Philadelphia Orchestra, won the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording (for Blanchard: Fire Shut Up In My Bones with the Metropolitan Opera).
Mr. Nézet-Séguin also won Best Classical Solo Vocal Album (for Voice of Nature – The Anthropocene with Renée Fleming), for which he accompanied the internationally lauded soprano at the piano. This collection of works on climate change features curated selections from the Romantic era to new commissions from Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, and Kevin Puts.
Curtis Faculty and Alumni Nominees for the 2023 GRAMMY Awards
The Dover Quartet, Curtis alumni and Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence, was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Volume 2 – The Middle Quartets. The Dover Quartet was also on the Ligneous Suite recording, nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Alumna Hilary Hahn (Violin ’99) was nominated in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for composer Michael Abels’s Isolation Variation. Los Angeles-based ensemble Wild Up, a modern musical collective which includes Curtis alumna JIJI (Guitar ’15), was nominated for Best Orchestral Performance with Eastman: Stay On It, taken from the second entry in Wild Up’s seven-volume anthology celebrating Julius Eastman (Piano ’63).
Alumna J’Nai Bridges (Opera ’12) was a collaborative artist on Okpebholo: Lord, How Come Me Here?, nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for baritone Will Liverman and pianist Paul Sánchez. Alumnus Nicholas Cords (Viola ’97), part of acclaimed quartet Brooklyn Rider, joined tenor Nicholas Phan, conductor Eric Jacobson, young orchestra The Knights, and countertenor Reginald Mobley for the nominated album Stranger – Works For Tenor by Nico Muhly.
In addition to the above wins, Yannick Nézet-Séguin received nominations for Best Choral Performance (for Verdi: Requiem – The Met Remembers 9/11) with Eric Owens (Opera ’95), Director, Vocal Studies and the Curtis Opera Theatre, and Best Classical Compendium (for A Concert For Ukraine with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra).
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and winners!
