Congratulations to Curtis’ 2025 Grammy Nominees!

Karen Slack, Michelle Cann, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, John Largess, and the Imani Winds are among this year's nominees.

The nominees for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced on Friday, November 8. Among those honored are several celebrated faculty and alumni of Curtis who are in the front rank of musicians worldwide.

Under the category of Best Opera Recording, Curtis’ head of conducting, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, has two nominations for conducting Metropolitan Opera recordings of Daniel Catán’s Florencia En El Amazonas and Kevin Puts’ The Hours. In the same category, baritone Elliot Madore (Opera ’10, Voice ’09) earned a nomination as part of the cast of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale. Maestro Nézet-Séguin was also nominated in Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for the film Maestro, about Curtis alumnus Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41).

Violist John Largess (’92), as a member of the Miró Quartet, was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for the album Home.

For Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, Karen Slack (Opera ’02) and Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies Michelle Cann (Piano ’13, ArtistYear ’15) are nominated for their album Beyond the Years—Unpublished Songs of Florence Price.

Under Best Classical Compendium, Curtis faculty members Imani Winds are nominated for their work on the album Akiho: BeLonging, produced by Mark Dover, clarinetist for the acclaimed wind quintet.

For Best Contemporary Classical Composition, this year’s composer in residence, Gabriela Ortiz, is nominated for Revolución Diamantina. The recording is also nominated for Best Classical Compendium, Best Engineered Album (Classical), and Best Orchestral Performance. It is also part of the Producer of the Year (Classical) nomination for Dmitriy Lipay.

A recording of Julius Eastman’s (Piano and Composition ’63) The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc was nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, and an album of works by Lukas Foss (Piano ’42, Conducting and Composition ’40) is nominated in Best Classical Compendium. The recording from the Buffalo Philharmonic was in celebration of what would have been Foss’ 100th birthday.