Really, I could care less about the Grammys. The broadcast has shown slight regard for classical music for decades.
However, for a classical music artist, to win a Grammy still has some cachet. The Grammy is basically the Oscar of the music biz, the most widely recognized of the mainstream music awards. So in that regard, it’s very nice for a musician to win one.
This year, in particular, my antennae are up, since so many of the winners are slated to appear in Princeton over the coming year.
The trio Time for Three, made up of violinists Nicholas Kendall and Charles Yang and double-bassist Ranaan Meyer, were honored last night for Best Classical Music Instrumental Solo, for their album “Letters from the Future,” a Deutsche Grammophon release of two triple concertos, one by Kevin Puts, composer and the other by Jennifer Higdon, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Xian Zhang.
Time for Three will return, following last year’s memorable, freewheeling appearance, to open this summer’s The Princeton Festival on June 9. The ensemble will also “solo” in Puts’ concerto on a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra next March. Puts’ concerto, titled “Contact,” was also recognized with this year’s Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
And just think, I used to listen to these guys horse around in Rittenhouse Square when they were still students at the Curtis Institute.
Parenthetically, Higdon is a Philadelphia resident and Zhang is music director of the New Jersey Symphony.
The Attacca Quartet was honored with this year’s Grammy for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album “Evergreen,” made up of five works by Caroline Shaw. The Attacca Quartet too will appear at this summer’s Princeton Festival on June 17. Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte” will be heard next season on a concert of the PSO in November.
Of course, Puts and Shaw are already Pulitzer Prize winners – Puts for his opera “Silent Night” in 2012 and Shaw for her a cappella masterpiece “Partita for 8 Voices” in 2013. Shaw, who was in the graduate program here in Princeton, became the youngest composer ever to be recognized with a Pulitzer, at age 30. Her work “Narrow Sea” garnered a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2022.
Baritone Will Liverman will present a recital at the Princeton Festival on June 19. Liverman is one of the principals on a recording of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” winner of this year’s Grammy for Best Opera Recording. The work opened the 2021-22 Metropolitan Opera season. In the recording, Liverman sings opposite Angel Blue, who you’ll recall stepped up at the eleventh hour to substitute for an ailing Pretty Yende to deliver a miraculous concert with the PSO only last month. Blanchard is the recipient of five previous Grammys in the Awards’ jazz categories.
Offering further shout-outs to our neighbors in Philadelphia, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is the conductor on “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” His recording with Renée Fleming (in which he appears as pianist), “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene,” was also honored last night in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category. Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s music director, has just extended his contract as music and artistic director of the Philadelphia Orchestra through 2030.
Finally, Philadelphia-based choir The Crossing was recognized in the category of Best Choral Performance for their album “Born.” The ensemble’s conductor, Donald Nally, only recently returned to his alma mater, Westminster Choir College, for a six-week residency.
This year’s Princeton Festival will take place June 9-25, largely on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden. Concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra are held at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium. For more information about the festival and next season’s concerts, visit princetonsymphony.org.
Congratulations to all, with appreciation from Princeton!
