The music industry paid tribute to their finest at the 55th Annual GRAMMY® Awards from Los Angeles.
Conductor Antoni Wit, one of Naxos most renowned artists, and producers Aleksandra Nagórko and Andrzej Sasin won in the Best Classical Compendium category for their recording Penderecki: Fonogrammi; Horn Concerto; Partita; The Awakening Of Jacob; Anaklasis. Antoni Wit , a leading expert in Polish classical music, has received seven previous GRAMMY® nominations for his recordings of music by Polish composers.
Kansas City Chorale and its conductor Charles Bruffy, won the Best Choral Performance GRAMMY® Award for their Chandos recording Life & Breath – Choral Works By René Clausen. In 2007, the Chorale’s recording of Grechaninov’s “Passion Week” received a GRAMMY® for Best Engineered Classical Album.
Life & Breath – Choral Works By René Clausen also won Best Engineered Album, Classical for Tom Caulfield and John Newton, engineers; and Mark Donahue, mastering engineer.
Eighth Blackbird were repeat winners in Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Meanwhile, on Cedille Records. Founded in 1996, this is the fourth GRAMMY® Award for Chicago-based Eighth Blackbird.
Composer Stephen Hartke won Best Contemporary Classical Composition for the same album for his composition Meanwhile – Incidental Music to Imaginary Puppet Plays. In 2008, Hartke's opera, The Greater Good, received the first Charles Ives Opera Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Blanton Alspaugh won Producer of the Year, Classical for his work on: Gjeilo: Northern Lights (Charles Bruffy & Phoenix Chorale), In Paradisum (Brian A. Schmidt & South Dakota Chorale), Life & Breath - Choral Works By René Clausen (Charles Bruffy & Kansas City Chorale) and Music For A Time Of War (Carlos Kalmar & The Oregon Symphony). Blanton Alspaugh was a Producer of the Year nominee in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Jim Selby, CEO of Naxos of America, commented from the ceremony: “I would like to congratulate all of the artists, engineers and producers who helped create these wonderful projects. Their dedication, excellence and imagination allows all of us to enjoy this amazing music.”
Best Classical Compendium
Antoni Wit, conductor; Aleksandra Nagórko & Andrzej Sasin, producers
Penderecki: Fonogrammi; Horn Concerto; Partita; The Awakening Of Jacob; Anaklasis
Naxos: 8572482 UPC: 747313248278
Best Choral Performance
Charles Bruffy, conductor
Life & Breath - Choral Works By René Clausen
Matthew Gladden, Lindsey Lang, Rebecca Lloyd, Sarah
Tannehill & Pamela Williamson; Kansas City Chorale
Chandos: CHSA 5105 UPC: 095115510520
Best Engineered Album, Classical
Tom Caulfield & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer
Life & Breath - Choral Works By René Clausen
Charles Bruffy & Kansas City Chorale
Chandos: CHSA 5105 UPC: 095115510520
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Eighth Blackbird
Meanwhile
Cedille Records: CDR 133 UPC: 735131913324
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Stephen Hartke, composer
Meanwhile - Incidental Music To Imaginary Puppet Plays
Track from: Meanwhile
Cedille Records: CDR 133 UPC: 735131913324
Producer Of The Year, Classical
Blanton Alspaugh
Gjeilo: Northern Lights (Charles Bruffy & Phoenix Chorale), In Paradisum (Brian A. Schmidt & South Dakota Chorale), Life & Breath - Choral Works By René Clausen (Charles Bruffy & Kansas City Chorale), Music For A Time Of War (Carlos Kalmar & The Oregon Symphony)