School of Music has much to celebrate this GRAMMY season
Fredonia School of Music recording studio in Mason Hall with Associate Professor Bernd Gottinger (center) at the board.
Editor's Note: The GRAMMY ceremony has been postponed until March 14.
Bernd Gottinger, head of Fredonia’s Sound Recording Technology program, was nominated for a GRAMMY in the category of Best Engineered Album-Classical for his work on the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s recording of Richard Danielpour's “The Passion of Yeshua.” The work tells the story of the final days of Jesus.
School of Music Assistant Professor Adam Luebke, director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, which also performed on the recording, has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the category of Best Choral Performance. Fredonia trumpet professor, Alex Jokipii (BPO principal trumpet) and trombone professor, Jonathan Lombardo (BPO principal trombone), are featured on the recording.
"Preparing the work was an immense project,” Dr. Luebke said. “It’s a concert length work in which the chorus sings for nearly the entire time. It pushes the chorus to its limits requiring a broad spectrum of styles, loud grand choruses to quiet intimate a cappella moments. The outcome is a profoundly moving and sensitive work. It is one of the greatest choral-orchestral works of our time.”
The recording also featured the UCLA Chamber Singers. Additional nominees included JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; James K. Bass, of the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA; and five vocalists including Dr. Bass, J'Nai Bridges, Timothy Fallon, Kenneth Overton, Hila Plitmann and Matthew Worth.
The album was also nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
In the same category of Best Engineered Album-Classical, Associate Professor Gottinger is joined by two Fredonia Sound Recording Technology alumni nominees: Charlie Post, ’98, and John Kershwell, '88, for their work with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The MET Opera Orchestra, respectively.
Fredonia attendee and current Sound Recording Technology faculty member Dave Fridmann's work on the band Haim's album "Women In Music Pt. III," including the song "The Steps," was nominated for a GRAMMY in the category of Best Rock Performance. The album is also nominated for Best Album of the Year. Mr. Fridmann won a GRAMMY in 2006 for The Flaming Lips' album "At War With The Mystics," in the category of Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
The 63rd GRAMMY Awards are scheduled to be announced in March.
