NAXOS ARTISTS HONORED WITH 11 GRAMMY® NOMINATIONS December 7, 2007
Joan Tower’s Made in America Garners Three GRAMMY® Award Nominations:
Best Classical Album,
Best Orchestral Performance
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
The Recording Academy® honored Naxos recording artists with 11 GRAMMY® Award nominations, more than any other classical record label.
The much-acclaimed recording of Joan Tower’s Made in America featuring conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, produced by Tim Handley, earned three nominations including Best Classical Album (award to Artists and Producer), Best Orchestral Performance (award to Conductor and Orchestra) and Best Classical Contemporary Composition (Award to Composer). Made in America began as an attempt by 65 small orchestras from around the United States to pool their resources to commission a new work by a major American composer. With the help of the American Symphony Orchestra League, Meet The Composer, and Ford Motor Company Fund, it became the phenomenon known as Ford Made in America, a project that brought Tower’s piece to towns nationwide.
In the category Best Orchestral Performance conductor-composer José Serebrier and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra earned nomination for their Naxos recording of Shostakovich’s The Golden Age.
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly took home a nomination for Best Classical Vocal Performance for the Naxos recording of Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Op. 37 with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Simon Wright, conductor.
A Best Choral Performance nomination went to chorus master Henryk Wojnarowski and conductor Antoni Wit for the Naxos recording of Penderecki’s Symphony No. 7 “Seven Gates of Jerusalem” with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.
Performers on two separate Naxos recordings are up for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance without Orchestra: Anastasia Khitruk and conductor Dmitry Yablonsky for their performance of Miklos Rózsa's Violin Concerto, Op. 24, and Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 29 with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; and pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti for her recording titled 20th Century Piano Sonatas, with works by Berg, Hindemith, Hartmann and Schoenberg.
In the Best Small Ensemble Performance category the Swiss Baroque Soloists received a nomination for the Naxos recording of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.
Blanton Alspaugh was nominated for Classical Producer of the Year for his work on the Naxos recording of Stephen Hartke’s The Greater Good, and producers Marina A. Ledin and Victor Ledin were nominated for their work on 20th Century Piano Sonatas (Allison Brewster Franzetti, piano).
The 50th annual GRAMMY® Awards will be held February 10th, 2008 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
THE RECORDINGS
| BEST INSTRUMENTAL SOLOIST(S) PERFORMANCE (WITHOUT ORCHESTRA) |
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20th CENTURY PIANO SONATAS
Allison Brewster Franzetti, piano
8.570401 (747313040179)
|
| BEST CLASSICAL VOCAL PERFORMANCE |
|
EDWARD ELGAR: Sea Pictures, Op. 37
Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano; Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Simon Wright, conductor
8.557710 (747313271023)
|
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