As per our recent "conversation" here. From the Oberlin press office:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New Music Ensemble eighth blackbird, Trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music, Wins Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance
OBERLIN, OHIO (February 11, 2008) - Eighth blackbird, the fearless (and
lower-cased) new music ensemble born and bred at the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music a dozen years ago, won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music
Performance for Strange Imaginary Animals, its fifth recording. This is the
first Grammy nomination for eighth blackbird, its fourth release on the
Chicago-based Cedille Records label, and the only new music nominee in the
category. The awards were announced February 10, 2008, by the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
A track from Strange Imaginary Animals, Jennifer Higdon's Zaka, received a
nomination for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Other works on the
recording are David M. Gordon's Friction Systems, Gordon Fitzell's violence
and evanescence, Steve Mackey's Indigenous Instruments, and strange
imaginary remix by composer Dennis DeSantis.
Strange Imaginary Animals also received recognition in the Classical
Producer of the Year category; Judith Sherman won a Grammy for her work on
this album and on recordings by Rachel Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle; Rick
Benjamin and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra; and the Kronos and Ying
quartets.
The New Yorker has described eighth blackbird as "friendly, unpretentious,
idealistic, and highly skilled." Its members are flutist Tim Munro '02;
clarinetist Michael J. Maccaferri '95; violinist and violist Matt Albert '96;
cellist Nicholas Photinos '96; percussionist Matthew Duvall '95; and pianist
Lisa Kaplan '96.
Oberlin Associate Professor of Conducting and Ruth Strickland Gardner
Professor of Music Timothy Weiss is widely recognized for having mentored
the group during its salad days. "I am absolutely ecstatic," he says of
their Grammy win. "I think it's just fantastic for them."
That an album of contemporary classical music triumphed over more standard
repertoire (recordings of Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky, for example)
demonstrates, Weiss says, "their remarkably high level of contemporary music
playing and their ability to connect with a wide audience."
Information about eighth blackbird is available on its web site:
www.eighthblackbird.com.
Also nominated for a Grammy Award was conductor Robert Spano '83,
music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), for Best Orchestra
Performance for the ASO's Telarc release of works by Vaughan Williams,
including Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. With the ASO, Spano has won
five Grammys.
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, founded in 1865 and situated amid the
intellectual vitality of Oberlin College since 1867, is the oldest
continuously operating conservatory in the United States. The Conservatory
is internationally renowned as a professional music school of the highest
caliber and has been pronounced a "national treasure" by the Washington
Post.
Oberlin alumni have gone on to achieve illustrious careers in all aspects of
the serious music world. Many of them have attained stature as solo
performers, composers, and conductors, among them Jennifer Koh, Steven
Isserlis, Denyce Graves, Franco Farina, Christopher Robertson, Lisa Saffer,
George Walker, Christopher Rouse, David Zinman, and Robert Spano. All of the
members of the contemporary sextet eighth blackbird, most of the members of
the International Contemporary Ensemble, and many of the members of Apollo's
Fire are Oberlin alumni. In chamber music, the Miró, Pacifica, Juilliard,
and Fry Street quartets, among other small ensembles, include
Oberlin-trained musicians, who also can be found in major orchestras and
opera companies throughout the world.
For more information about Oberlin, visit
www.oberlin.edu/con.
--
Harry Lavo
Holyoke, MA