Paul O’Dette, Professor of Lute at the Eastman School of Music and an internationally respected performer and scholar of Renaissance and Baroque music, has been nominated for his fifth Grammy Award.
He is up against two Eastman alumni in the Best Opera Recording category: soprano Renée Fleming (MM ’83) and tenor Anthony Dean Griffey (MM ’01).
O’Dette, who won a Grammy in 1996 for a CD of Purcell songs with Sylvia McNair, was nominated for Lully: Psyche. O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, who serve as music directors of the Boston Early Music Festival, are the conductors on the album. Last year, O’Dette received a Best Opera Recording nomination for Lully: Thésée. He also earned Grammy nominations in 2005 for conducting Conradi’s Ariadne and in 2006 for his solo lute CD Bacheler: The Bachelar’s Delight.
Fleming performs the role of Tatiana on the nominated DVD recording of Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin produced by the Metropolitan Opera. She has won Grammys for her albums The Beautiful Voice and Bel Canto. Griffey is Jimmy on another nominated DVD, Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, produced by the Los Angeles Opera. The Best Opera Recording Grammy is awarded to the conductor, album producer, and principal soloists.
Griffey is also up for a Grammy in the Best Classical Album category, which is presented to the artist and album producer, for the same DVD recording.
In addition, several Eastman alumni perform with bands that are up for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Rick Shaw (MM ’81), Bernie Dresel (BM ’83), and Brian Scanlon (BM 81, MM 83) are on Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band nominated recording Act Your Age, while Lew Soloff (BM ’65) performs with Carla Bley and Her Remarkable Big Band on the nominated CD Appearing Nightly.
Another Eastman alumnus, Alan Pierson (DMA ’06), is a conductor on the CD Reich: Daniel Variations, one of the albums bringing Judith Sherman a Classical Producer of the Year nomination.
The 51st annual Grammy Awards will be presented Sunday, Feb. 8, in Los Angeles.
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