SEATTLE SYMPHONY NOMINATED FOR 2018 ORCHESTRA OF THE YEAR AWARD BY GRAMOPHONE
SEATTLE SYMPHONY IS THE ONLY ORCHESTRA OUTSIDE OF EUROPE NOMINATED AMONG SEVEN ENSEMBLES
SEATTLE, WA – Seattle Symphony is one of eight international ensembles nominated for the Orchestra of the Year Award, a new award that recognizes the artistic excellence of an ensemble. Compiled by Gramophone’s editors and critics, finalists were chosen from recordings made from June 2017 through May 2018. The winner will be voted on by the general public. The Gramophone Classical Music Awards celebrate the most outstanding recordings of the past year, and this new award gives listeners the opportunity to vote for an orchestra they believe has made an exceptional contribution to recorded music this year.
“Since the launch of our record label in 2014, we have been able to share the excitement of live Seattle Symphony performances through recordings that capture the innovative, artistic spirit of the orchestra,” shared Elena Dubinets, Vice President of Artistic Planning & Creative Projects at the Seattle Symphony, and Co-Executive Producer for Seattle Symphony Media. “We are honored to be nominated for this prestigious new award from Gramophone. Congratulations to Music Director Ludovic Morlot, Music Director Designate Thomas Dausgaard, the exceptional musicians of the Seattle Symphony and recording engineer Dmitriy Lipay for recognition of your artistic achievements!”
The eight ensembles nominated are:
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
Il Pomo d’Oro
Seattle Symphony
Les Siècles
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
The ensembles will be supported by two or three recordings each, and voters can listen to specially curated playlists on Spotify, Apple Music and Qobuz featuring these recordings, giving voters the opportunity to hear these incredible ensembles alongside one another. Voters can search for “Orchestra2018” in each of the above streaming services to find Gramophone’s “Orchestra of the Year” playlists.
Gramophone’s Editor in Chief, James Jolly commented, “In an age when streaming services offer such a wealth of recorded music, people can listen to the world’s great ensembles at work at the touch of a screen. Our list turns the focus on eight ensembles who have enriched the record catalogue this past year, and we hope this new award will help celebrate their extraordinary work.”
Voting opens with the publication of the July issue of Gramophone on June 15 and remains open until July 31. Votes can be made at gramophone.co.uk/awards/2018.
The winner of the Orchestra of the Year Award will be announced at the awards ceremony on September 13 in London’s Grand Connaught Rooms, alongside other special awards such as Artist of the Year, Young Artist of the Year and the coveted Recording of the Year. The Orchestra of the Year Award is the only one decided by public vote.
FROM GRAMOPHONE’S CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS:
ORCHESTRA OF THE YEAR AWARD: SEATTLE SYMPHONY
The Seattle Symphony has a long tradition in the recording studios; under Gerard Schwarz, its Music Director from 1985 to 2011, it recorded extensively for Delos and Naxos leaving a priceless discography of largely American music. Now this 115-year-old ensemble is back making recordings (usually based on live performances) and is sounding superb. Ludovic Morlot (2011–19) has focused on French repertoire including Messiaen and Dutilleux — with a rewarding side-step towards Charles Ives — while the ensemble’s Music Director Designate Thomas Dausgaard has taken them into other underexplored areas of the repertoire. After last year’s Gramophone Award-shortlisted Mahler Ten, we’ve had a bracing and thrilling coupling of Nielsen’s Third and Fourth Symphonies. Click here to vote for the Seattle Symphony.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY MEDIA
Launched in 2014, Seattle Symphony Media is the Seattle Symphony’s independent in-house record label. The Symphony has an extensive catalogue of nearly 150 recordings, which have brought forth three Grammy Awards, 21 Grammy Award nominations and two Emmy Awards throughout its history. Under the direction of Music Director Ludovic Morlot, the Symphony's in-house record label features both “core repertoire” and some of the eclectic and contemporary programming for which the Seattle Symphony has become recognized. The label includes both studio recordings and performances captured live in concert, allowing the organization an unprecedented breadth of repertoire choices.
All recordings are made in the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall and engineered by the Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Dmitriy Lipay. Using the Symphony’s own state-of-the-art in-house recording studio, recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing onstage with naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range. Distributed by Naxos of America, the recordings are available in both physical and digital formats from a variety of retailers. Digital content is available in stereo, “Mastered for iTunes,” 96k 24-bit high resolution and 5.1 surround sound.
SEATTLE SYMPHONY
The Seattle Symphony is one of America's leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world — the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall — in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year. The Seattle Symphony has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season. The orchestra has made nearly 150 recordings and has received three Grammy Awards, 23 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. In 2014 the Symphony launched its in-house recording label, Seattle Symphony Media.
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