The 44th annual Grammy Award winners were announced and honoured last week. While the media focus as always was on popular music, the international music community recognizes the awarding of a Grammy in any category - classical, children’s music, even polka, on the level of an Olympic gold medal or moviedom’s golden statue, the Oscars. It was heartening to note that this year’s winners included a group of Baltic musicians. The Grammy for Small Ensemble Performance recording was awarded to Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra named after and led by the world-famous Riga-born violin virtuoso and conductor Gidon Kremer. They won the Grammy for last year’s recording “After Mozart”, featuring compositions by Raskatov, Silvestrov and Schnittke, among others. Kremer formed the chamber ensemble in 1996. The average age of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian musicians is 25. To date Kremerata Baltica has recorded over 100 albums. The ensemble has won numerous awards, among them the UNESCO Prize and the Triumph Prize in 2000. The ensemble has toured extensively in Europe, the USA and Japan. Here’s hoping the Grammy winners will bring their talents to a Canadian concert venue in the near future. TN

Märkmed: