Three Eastman School of Music graduates, soprano Renée Fleming, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, and composer/arranger Bill Cunliffe, won awards in the 52nd annual Grammy Awards competition. Fleming and Griffey, who already had two Grammys apiece, received two more Grammys each, while Cunliffe picked up his first Grammy.
Fleming (MM ’83) won in the Best Classical Vocal Performance category for her album of opera arias Verismo. In addition, Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace, on which Fleming is featured, was named Best Classical Crossover Album. Fleming previously was awarded Best Classical Vocal Performance Grammys for her albums The Beautiful Voice and Bel Canto.
Griffey (MM ’01) appears on the album Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Adagio from Symphony No. 10, which won Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. The tenor won Grammys last year in the Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album categories for the Los Angeles Opera’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, on which he performed alongside Tony Award-winning Broadway stars Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald.
Cunliffe (MM ’81) received the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement for “West Side Story Medley,” a track that appears on the album Resonance Big Band Plays Tribute to Oscar Peterson. It was his third nomination and first Grammy; he had previously been nominated for his arrangements of “Do It Again” on the CD Imaginacion and “Angel Eyes” on the album Lonely Town.
The Grammys were awarded Sunday, Jan. 31, in Los Angeles.
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