YSM alums win Grammy Awards

Recipients of the 64th Annual Grammy Awards were announced on Sunday, April 3. Please join us in congratulating the Yale School of Music artists who won awards and those who were nominated in November.

Grammy Winners

Composer Caroline Shaw ’07MM won a Grammy Award in the “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” category for Narrow Sea, an album of music performed by soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Gilbert Kalish, and Sō Percussion, whose members include Eric Cha-Beach ’07MM, Josh Quillen ’06MM, Adam Sliwinski ’03MM ’04MMA ’09DMA, and Jason Treuting ’01MM ’02AD.

Cellist Alex Veltman ’90MM won a Grammy Award as a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra for the ensemble’s recording, under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, of Florence Price’s First and Third symphonies. The album won in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category.

Vocalist Mindy Ella Chu ’15MM won a Grammy Award in the "Best Choral Performance" category for her contributions to a recording of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, "Symphony of a Thousand," by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, National Children’s Chorus, Pacific Chorale, and soloists, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Violinist David Angell ’84MM won a Grammy Award in the "Best Country Album" category for his contributions to Chris Stapleton's Starting Over. Angell performed Stapleton's song "Cold" with the artist at the televised Grammy Awards ceremony on April 3. 

Grammy Nominees

Daniel Reinker ’81MM, as principal violist of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, was nominated in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category for John Adams: My Father Knew Charles Ives. The performance was conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.

Oboist/English horn player Kyle Mustain ’06MM and violinists Irene Cheng ’94MM and Louis Lev ’90MM were nominated as members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for a recording, under the baton of Manfred Honeck and with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The album was nominated in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category.

Violinists Mariel Bailey ’75MM and Jean Yablonsky ’83MM, violists Timothy Hale ’84CERT and Daniel Stone ’15MM ’16MMA, clarinetist Emil Khudyev ’11MM, and harpist Valerie Muzzolini ’02MM were nominated as members of the Seattle Symphony for the ensemble’s recording, under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard, of R. Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy. The recording was nominated in the “Best Orchestral Performance” category.

Conductor Craig Hella Johnson ’90MMA ’95DMA received a nomination in the “Best Choral Performance” category for leading the vocal group Conspirare, soprano Estelí Gomez, cellist Douglas Harvey, and the Austin, Los Angeles, and Texas guitar quartets in a recording of music by Johnson, Reena Esmail ’11MM ’14MMA ’18DMA, Nico Muhly, and Kile Smith. The album is titled The Singing Guitar.

Vocalist Deborah Stephens ’23MM was nominated as a member of the Skylark Vocal Ensemble, in the “Best Choral Performance” category, for a recording, conducted by Matthew Guard, titled It’s a Long Way.

Seven Pillars, an album of music by composer Andy Akiho ’11MM and performed by Sandbox Percussion—Jonny Allen ’13MM ’14AD, Victor Caccese ’13MM, Ian David Rosenbaum ’10MM ’11AD, and Terry Sweeney ’15MM—was nominated in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” and “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” categories.

Percussionist David Skidmore ’08MM received a nomination in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” category, as a member of Third Coast Percussion (whose members also include Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, and Peter Martin), for Archetypes, a recording that features performances by the percussion ensemble, guitarist Sérgio Assad, and composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist Clarice Assad. Archetypes was also nominated in the “Best Contemporary Classical Composition,” “Best Engineered Album, Classical,” and “Producer of the Year” categories.

Faculty violinist Augustin Hadelich’s recording of J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, BWV 1001-1006, was nominated in the “Best Classical Instrumental Solo” category.

The Arching Path, an album of music by composer Christopher Cerrone ’09MM ’10MMA ’14DMA featuring performances by composer and pianist Timo Andres ’07BA ’09MM, percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum ’10MM ’11AD, clarinetist Mingzhe Wang ’03MM ’04AD ’06MMA ’12DMA, and soprano Lindsay Kesselman was nominated in the “Best Classical Compendium” category.