Grammy Congrats in Order

Juilliard Alums Take Home Grammys

Congratulations to all of this year’s Grammy winners and nominees! The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, and the award for best urban contemporary album went to Beyoncé and Jay-Z for Everything Is Love; Jahaan Sweet (BM ’15, jazz studies) produced and helped write two of the tracks on the album (“Friends” and “Heard About Us”). Two other projects Sweet worked on also received nominations: Drake’s album Scorpion (for Album of the Year) and Eminem’s “Lucky You” (for best rap song).

James Ehnes (Pre-College ’91, BM ’97, violin) took home his second Grammy, for best classical instrumental solo, for Kernis: Violin Concerto, which featured the Seattle Symphony in Aaron Jay Kernis’ concerto.

The classical compendium award went to Piano Concerto, “Spiritualist”/Poems of Life/Glacier/Rush, which is made up of three concertos (for electric guitar, alto sax, and piano) and an orchestral song cycle for a countertenor by Kenneth Fuchs (MM ’83, DMA ’88, composition). The recording featured conductor JoAnn Falletta (MM ’83, DMA ’89, orchestral conducting), who led the London Symphony Orchestra and, among other soloists, Jeffrey Biegel (BM ’83, MM ’84, piano), who commissioned one of the concertos, “Spiritualist.”

Mason Bates’ (BCJ exchange ’99, MM ’01, composition) opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, which the Santa Fe Opera premiered, won for best opera recording—mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (MM ’06, voice) sang the role of Laurene Powell, Jobs’ wife. The recording also earned best composition, engineering, and producer nominations.

The award for best engineered classical album went to Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11 (“The Year 1905”), for which Tim Martyn (BM ’76, piano) served as mastering engineer.

Joshua Simka (BM '14, voice) is the Journal's assistant editor