Jennifer Higdon Wins Best Contemporary Classical Composition | 2018 GRAMMYs
Composer Jennifer Higdon won Best Contemporary Classical Composition for "Viola Concerto" at the 60th GRAMMY Awards. The concerto was performed by soloist Roberto Díaz with the Nasvhille Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero.
The New York-born composer and composition teacher has earned acclaim for her compositions, including earning a Pulitzer Prize for Music for her 2009 "Violin Concerto," which premiered in Indianapolis. She's also had works commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony.
Higdon's GRAMMY-winning "Viola Concerto" was co-commissioned by the Library of Congress, and first premiered in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress. The three-movement work brings in hints of jazz, new-age, Americana, and of course classical for a composition The Washington Post called "the work of a composer who is completely at home in her own idiom."
This marks the classical composer's second career GRAMMY win. She won previously at the 52nd GRAMMY Awards in the same category for her composition "Percussion Concerto."
The other nominees were "Concerto For Orchestra," Zhou Tian, composer (Louis Langrée & Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra); "Picture Studies," Adam Schoenberg, composer (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony); "Requiem," Tigran Mansurian, composer (Alexander Liebreich, Florian Helgath, RIAS Kammerchor & Münchener Kammerorchester); and "Songs Of Solitude," Richard Danielpour, composer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony).
