Chicago Classical Music

With the spate of recent award shows, this seems a good time to look at how performances are categorized.

I am a member of the Classical Committee of the Chicago Chapter of NARAS (National Organization of Recording Arts & Sciences). Under the leadership of Committee co-chair Rachel Barton Pine, we are considering recommending changes in the current Grammy Classical Award categories.

The current categories are:

Best Classical Album

Best Orchestral Performance

Best Opera Recording

Best Choral Performance

Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)

Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (without Orchestra)

Best Chamber Music Performance

Best Small Ensemble Performance

Best Classical Vocal Performance

Best Classical Contemporary Composition

Best Classical Crossover Album

(There are also separate awards for “Producer of the Year, Classical” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical”.)

At our last Classical Committee meeting, Rachel Barton Pine noted that the way these categories are defined results in very disparate types of performances being compared against each other, such that many superb recordings stand little or no chance of ever winning an award — or even being nominated for one.

A subset of our Classical Committee (including Rachel Barton Pine and myself) recently met to discuss this problem and recommend changes. Looking to other organizations’ classical awards (e.g., Gramophone Magazine, ClassicsToday.com) for ideas, we came up with four possibilities, which the full Committee is now voting on. We will propose our choices to the full Recording Academy’s Awards & Nominations Committee (we haven’t yet decided how many proposals we will make this year).

Following are the potential proposals and our reasons for suggesting them:

SPLIT "BEST INSTRUMENTAL SOLOIST PERFORMANCE WITHOUT ORCHESTRA" INTO 2 CATEGORIES:

The vast majority of winners in this category have been pianists, and pianists often comprise all or most of the 5 nominees. Taking a cue from Gramophone Magazine, and to give string and wind players a better chance, we suggest creating two categories:

"Best Keyboard Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)" and

Best Non-Keyboard Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)"

(NOTE: the "soloist WITH Orchestra" category has been much more equitably awarded over the years.)

SPLIT "BEST SMALL ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE" INTO 2 CATEGORIES, while also redefining "small ensemble" and "chamber music":

The Small Ensemble category is currently defined as being 10-24 musicians, vocal or instrumental (not including conductor). We propose changing the Chamber Music category to be 6 or fewer musicians, since the vast majority of nominated performances in this category range from duos to sextets. Small Ensemble would be redefined as 7-24 musicians. The Chamber Music category is currently for vocal or instrumental performances, and we would leave that alone because so few vocal groups have 6 or fewer members (and the few that do usually specialize in early music — see below). Just as there are separate Orchestral and Choral award categories for groups of more than 24 musicians or singers, we feel that vocal and instrumental small ensembles should not be pitted against each other either. Therefore, we recommend creating two categories:

"Best Small Vocal Ensemble Performance" and

"Best Small Instrumental Ensemble Performance"

The category split would be proposed in conjunction with the proposal to redefine the numbers of musicians in Chamber Music and Small Ensembles.

ADD NEW CATEGORY — "BEST CLASSICAL CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE"

The current "Best Classical Contemporary Composition" category is for the first recording of a work written within the last 25 years, and is awarded to the composer. This new category would be a performer's award for albums containing music from 1950 to the present.  Albums entered in this category could also enter any other (opera, orchestra, chamber, etc.), but by having their own category, they could be judged separately from traditional classical music performances, with which they have little chance of competing, since the audience for contemporary music is a subsection of the larger classical music audience. (This would be just like the Grammy Awards’ many categories within other genres such as its separate Best Album awards for “Hard Rock” and “Metal”.)

ADD NEW CATEGORY — "BEST CLASSICAL PERIOD INSTRUMENT PERFORMANCE"

This new category would be for albums containing historically informed performances of music from the 18th Century and before. Albums entered in this category could also be entered in other classical categories they fit (e.g., opera, small ensemble, soloist, etc.), but by having their own category, they could be judged separately from traditional classical music performances with which they have little chance of competing. (Our subcommittee also discussed Gramophone's multiple early music categories such as Best Baroque Vocal, Best Baroque Instrumental, and Best Early Music (pre-Baroque).  While we might want to propose such ideas in the future, we felt it would be best to start with a simpler proposal.)

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