New England Conservatory Artists Nominated for Grammy Awards

For Immediate Release:
December 4, 2008

Composer Michael Gandolfi, Chair of NEC Composition Department, Nominated for Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Bob Brookmeyer Nominated for Instrumental Arrangement; Alan Pasqua for Best Jazz Instrumental Album

Several NEC musical artists have been nominated for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, to be presented February 8 in a televised ceremony from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Michael Gandolfi, an alumnus who graduated in 1979 and is currently chair of the Composition faculty, was nominated in Category 107 for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The nomination honors his symphonic work The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano conducting, on the Telarc label. Composed in 2004 and enlarged in 2007, Gandolfi’s work is a series of meditations on the 30-acre garden created by architect and architectural critic Charles Jencks. The garden design represents “a joining of terrestrial nature with fundamental concepts of modern physics (quantum mechanics, super-string theory, complexity theory, etc.)” according to Gandolfi’s website.

Jazz pianist Alan Pasqua, an NEC alumnus from the class of 1975, was nominated as part of the Pasqua, Dave Carpenter & Peter Erskine Trio in Category 48 for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Their Fuzzy Music disc Standards features what allaboutjazz.com describes as “rhythm-based light jazz taken from the Great American Song Book and played in a straight-ahead style that comes across with warmth and elegance.” Among the cuts are Speak Low, The Way You Look Tonight, and I Hear a Rhapsody.

Finally, Bob Brookmeyer, who recently retired from the NEC jazz faculty and founded the NEC Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, was nominated for his arrangement of St. Louis Blues in Category 86, Best Instrumental Arrangement. The track comes from Monday Night Live at The Village Vanguard, performed by The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on Planet Arts Recordings. The New York Times praised Brookmeyer’s “dissonant gloss” and “clever and canonical arrangement.”

Other NEC alumni or faculty were nominated in the following categories:

Category 9
Best Pop Instrumental Performance
Fortune Teller
Fourplay
Track from: Energy (Heads Up International)
Drummer Harvey Mason ’75 is a founding member of Fourplay and has been nominated for or won Grammys in and outside of this group on an almost annual basis.

Category 49
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Appearing Nightly
Carla Bley and Her Remarkable Big Band (Watt)
Bley’s band on this live album includes Roger Jannotta ’76 M.M. on soprano and alto saxophones and flute.

Category 50
Best Latin Jazz Album
Afro Bop Alliance
Caribbean Jazz Project (Heads Up International)
CJP is led by vibraphonist Dave Samuels of the NEC faculty; band includes pianist Harry Appelman ’88 M.M.

Category 108
Best Classical Crossover Album
The Othello Syndrome
Uri Caine Ensemble (Winter & Winter)
Chris Speed ’90 plays clarinet on two tracks on this characteristically eclectic Caine project.

For more information on NEC’s Grammy award-winning musicians, check the NEC Website

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music and jazz.

NEC presents more than 600 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, 100-year old, beautifully restored concert hall. These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of “From the Top,” a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.
Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Public Relations Manager
New England Conservatory
617-585-1143
epfeifer@newenglandconservatory.edu

Press Releases