{"id":2358,"date":"2019-02-11T11:33:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T16:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2022-01-26T00:22:45","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T05:22:45","slug":"kernis-2019-grammy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/kernis-2019-grammy\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer AARON JAY KERNIS Wins 2019 Grammy Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recording Features Soloist James Ehnes and the Seattle Symphony with conductor Ludovic Morlot<\/h3>\n
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With James Ehnes after U.S. Premiere of Violin Concerto with Seattle Symphony (photo: Jim Holt Courtesy Seattle Symphony)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pulitzer Prize winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis\u2019 new violin concerto, recorded and premiered by violinist James Ehnes with the Seattle Symphony and conductor Ludovic Morlot on\u00a0Onyx Classics [ONYX 4189]<\/a>, has won in two categories for Grammy awards: Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and Best Classical Instrumental Solo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kernis responded to the win with the following statement:<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a great thrill to receive this wonderful honor! First I want to thank the Recording Academy and voting members for their support.<\/em><\/p>\n

James Ehnes is a truly spectacular musician and collaborator (as well as being a great human being) – James took everything I threw at him with good humor and generosity, and made the knuckle-busting passages and everything else I gave him sound absolutely dazzling.<\/em><\/p>\n

To The truly inspiring Ludovic Morlot and the musicians of the Seattle Symphony, who, in a few days played the Concerto as if they\u2019d lived with it their entire lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you to Simon Woods for believing in me, and to Dimitri Lipay: such a remarkably exacting and patient engineer who made a recording with the energy of live performance and the perfection of the studio.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderful time to be writing new music, and my extraordinary colleagues for this award, Missy, Du Yun, Mason and Jake are making the present so exciting with the richness and pleasure of their work. They all deserve this!<\/em><\/p>\n

And to my kids, Delphine and Jonah, and my wonderful agent Elizabeth Dworkin, who will share this joy with me!”<\/em><\/p>\n

The concerto has been taking audiences by storm across the globe since its premiere in 2017, hailed as, \u201cA killer new concerto,\u201d by the\u00a0Seattle Times’\u00a0Thomas May. The work was commissioned by the Seattle, Toronto, Dallas, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. Both the Seattle and Toronto Symphony premieres were in March of 2017, and a performance by Leonard Slatkin and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin followed.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Kernis has written a lot of music for violin, but for him \u201cthis concerto continues to push boundaries in violin technique and in the huge presence that the violin has throughout,\u201d commenting that, \u201cJames can play anything!\u201d The friendship between Ehnes and Kernis began when Kernis wrote\u00a0Two Movements (with Bells)\u00a0for Ehnes for the BBC Proms. The two continued their working relationship on the Violin Concerto as\u00a0Ehnes edited very finely what the composer wrote for him, while keeping Kernis\u2019 desire to bring virtuosity to new frontiers.<\/p>\n

As one of America\u2019s most honored composers, Kernis is the winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, Pulitzer Prize, and Nemmers Award, and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters,\u00a0Workshop Director of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab, teaches composition at the Yale School of Music,\u00a0and was inducted in to the Classical Music Hall of Fame. His music appears prominently on concert programs worldwide, and he has been commissioned by America\u2019s preeminent performing organizations and artists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Praise for Kernis\u2019 Violin Concerto<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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\u201cEhnes underscored his reputation as one of today\u2019s finest violinists\u2026the concerto demonstrated Kernis\u2019 command of the complete orchestral palette. In the wildly eclectic third movement, Kernis pushed the soloist toward the frontiers of technique, with double-stop runs and a final cadenza so scarily difficult that audience members were gasping in disbelief.\u201d\u00a0Seattle Times<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Entertaining, dazzling, smile-inducing, toe-tapping music…Kernis is the preeminent orchestral showman of the age.”\u00a0Gramophone<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Kernis concerto has legs\u2026and Ehnes\u2019 playing is a marvel.”\u00a0Theater Jones<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BBC Music Magazine, Concerto Choice:<\/em><\/strong> \u201c\u2026a standout turn from both composer and soloist. The final movement is a wilder extension of this jazz-tinged mode, and the thrilling final minute-and-a-half sees Ehnes bowing, picking, and plucking to a frenzied finish.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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WATCH THE TRAILER:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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