Contrary to presidential orders, diversity and inclusion were celebrated on Sunday, Feb. 2, at the 67th annual Grammy Awards. The show focused powerful but disciplined attention on the achievements of an exceptionally varied roster of musicians
The event — held in Los Angeles as always and at Crypto.com Arena again this year— also paid special attention to the catastrophic fires that raged in Southern California last month. Millions of dollars in contributions from artists, agencies, organizations, and audiences in person and at home were raised.
Among the night’s big winners were Beyoncé, who, with a record 99 nominations to date, took home her first Album of the Year award for Cowboy Carter; Kendrick Lamar, whose “Not Like Us” won both Record and Song of the Year; and Chappell Roan, who was named Best New Artist. There were an unusual number of young first-time nominees who won.
Rapper Doechii took home Best Rap Album — just the third woman to win the traditionally male-dominated award, beating out established names such as Eminem and J. Cole. Sabrina Carpenter pulled off something of an upset by winning Best Pop Vocal Album, besting Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift.
Among classical artists, the San Francisco Symphony again made headlines, winning Best Opera Recording with Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater, captured in live performances at Davies Symphony Hall and released last year by Deutsche Grammophon. Those concerts, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and directed by Peter Sellars, came just days after Saariaho’s death on June 2, 2023, at the age of 70.
The recording features the SF Symphony and Chorus and vocalists Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan, and Christopher Purves. This is the 17th Grammy win for the SF Symphony (out of 31 nominations), and it’s the first award for Salonen and the orchestra together.
In other orchestral news, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Gabriela Ortiz’s ballet score Revolución diamantina with Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel swept three categories: Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Compendium, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition (that last one an award for the piece itself).
Other awards of special interest to SF Classical Voice readers:
Best Engineered Album, Classical: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit, Mark Donahue and John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Producer of the Year, Classical: Elaine Martone
Best Instrumental Composition: Strands, Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf, and Christian Euman)
Best Choral Performance: Ochre, Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing)
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: Rectangles and Circumstance, Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion
Best Classical Instrumental Solo: Bach: Goldberg Variations, Víkingur Ólafsson
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, Karen Slack, soprano; Michelle Cann, pianist
