Cleveland Institute of Music faculty members Jason Vieaux, Jaime Laredo, Alan Bise and Bruce Egre and pianist Daniil Trifonov are among the nominees for the 57th Grammy Awards, to be presented in Los Angeles on February 8.
Trifonov, an artist’s diploma student of Sergei Babayan, has been nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his album, The Carnegie Recital. Trifonov is also featured in Mieczyslaw Weinberg, an album nominated for Best Classical Compendium.
Guitarist Jason Vieaux, head of the CIM Guitar Department, was nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his album, Play, released by Cleveland’s Azica Records. Alan Bise, CIM’s director of recording services, and Bruce Egre, head of CIM’s audio recording degree program, are Azica’s chief classical producer and president & chief recording engineer, respectively.
“I’m thrilled, of course,” Vieaux said, responding to the news. “I’ve been very fortunate to have a management, PR firm, and record label that support me for the records I want to make, the programs I want to play, and projects I want to promote.”
“I personally feel very fortunate to have been making records with Cleveland’s own Jason Vieaux for the past 12 years,” said Bruce Egre. “There is no one that works harder at their craft than Jason and he is one of the most musical musicians I know.”
Alan Bise echoed Egre’s remarks. “I’m very fortunate to work with an artist like Jason, who is not just one of the best guitarists in the world, but one of the best musicians. It’s very flattering to be recognized by our peers and to be one out of five nominated from the hundreds of worthy records submitted for consideration in this category.”
Another CIM Grammy nomination centers around composer Anna Clyne, whose Prince of Clouds has been nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The recording of her work features CIM violin professor Jaime Laredo as well as Oberlin alumna, violinist Jennifer Koh.
Other nominees with Northeast Ohio connections include tenor and Youngstown native Lawrence Brownlee (Virtuoso Rossini Arias) and Cleveland Orchestra Miami principal guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero (for Roberto Sierra’s Sinfonia No. 4 with the Nashville Symphony).
And the many local fans of harpsichordist Jory Vinikour will be happy to know that his Toccatas on the Sono Luminis label is on the list for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.
On the production side of the industry, Elaine Martone was nominated for Classical Producer of the Year, and two recordings she produced received additional nominations: Sibelius: Symphonies No. 6, 7 and Tapiola with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the “Best Orchestral Recording” category, and Mahler: Symphony No. 2 with Ben Zander and the Philharmonia Orchestra (for surround producer) in the “Best Surround Sound” category.
Additionally, Michael Bishop of FiveFour productions, on top of his nomination in the Surround Sound category (for surround engineer) for the Zander recording, was nominated for Best Engineer for the Atlanta Symphony’s recording of Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No. 4, Dona Nobis Pacem and The Lark Ascending, Robert Spano, conducting.
