CalArts’ faculty and alumni took home the recording industry’s highest honors during the 57th annual Grammy Awards, held on Sunday night (Feb. 8) in Los Angeles.
The LA-based percussion ensemble Partch won for its album, Plectra & Percussion Dances (Bridge Records), in the Best Classical Compendium category. Produced by John Schneider, the recording features a number of CalArtians: David Johnson, Ulrich Krieger and Paul Berkolds, faculty of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, as well as CalArts alumni Erin Barnes (Music BFA 97), Matt Cook (Music MFA 10), Yumi Lee (Music BFA 10), Derek Stein (Music MFA 10), Nick Terry (Music MFA 04), T. J. Troy (Music MFA 01) and Alex Wand (Music MFA 12). Partch received its Grammy in the earlier, nontelevised portion of the Grammys ceremony.
The other nominees in the classical compendium category were Britten To America (NMC Recordings), Mieczysław Weinberg (ECM New Series), Mike Marshall & The Turtle Island Quartet (Adventure Music), The Solent – Fifty Years Of Music By Ralph Vaughan Williams (Albion Records).
John Luther Adams (Music BFA 73) also won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his work Become Ocean, which also earned the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
His fellow nominees were: Anna Clyne: Prince Of Clouds; George Crumb: Voices from The Heartland; Stephen Paulus: Concerto For Two Trumpets & Band; and Roberto Sierra: Sinfonía No. 4.
Listen to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra perform the Grammy-winning Become Ocean: