No Grammy Wins For C-U Area Nominees

Artists and producers with Champaign-Urbana ties walked away from Sunday’s Grammy awards empty-handed. Renowned baritone Nathan Gunn was nominated for best opera recording.  The General Director of the University of Illinois’ Lyric Theatre program performs in the Santa Fe Opera recording of Jennifer Higdon’s “Cold Mountain.”  

It was the second nomination for Gunn, who he won in that category in 2010, playing the title role in “Billy Bud” with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding.

Urbana native and soprano soloist Molly Netter was featured in the Clarion Choir’s recording of Maximillian Steinberg’s “Passion Week”.  It was nominated for best choral performance.

Champaign-based Archeophone Records was nominated twice for “Waxing the Gospel”, an anthology of the earliest known sacred recordings from over 100 years ago.

Producers Richard Martin and Meagan Hennessey were nominated for best historical album, while Martin received a nomination for best album notes. Perennial nominees, Archeophone’s lone Grammy win came in 2007, best historical album honors for “Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry.”

In the best opera category this year, the award went to “Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles”, with the LA Opera Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon.

The choral performance category, the winner was “Penderecki Conducts Penderecki, Volume 1.” It features the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic Choir.

A collection of mostly previously unreleased Bob Dylan recordings (“The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966”) took the best historical album award.

The winner of best album notes was “Sissle and Blake Shuffle Along,” a collection of 1928 recordings from an African-American Broadway show.