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Music Director Sir Andrew Davis wins Gramophone Award
By Press Release, Lyric Opera of Chicago
OCTOBER 01, 2008 Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s music director, has won Gramophone magazine’s prestigious “Best of Category – Concerto” award. The 30th-annual awards ceremony was held in London’s luxurious Dorchester Hotel on Thursday, September 25.
The recording for which Sir Andrew was nominated and chosen, Elgar’s Violin Concerto featuring violinist James Ehnes and London’s Philarmonia Orchestra, was released on the Onyx Classics label in January 2008. That month the record was also named Gramophone’s “Editor’s Choice.”
James Ehnes, one of “classical music’s biggest names” (The Times, London), is a preeminent violinist, having just recently won his fifth JUNO award as well as the 2008 Grammy Award. In July 2007 he became the youngest person elected as a Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada. This is his first recording with Sir Andrew Davis.
The record is available for purchase on the Onyx Classics label and Amazon.com.
The Classic FM Gramophone Awards, dubbed “the Oscars” of the classical music world, are bestowed upon artists in 15 categories: early music, Baroque vocal, Baroque instrumental, chamber, choral, concerto, contemporary, DVD, historic reissue, historic archive, instrumental, opera, orchestral, recital, and vocal.
Gramophone asks the music industry to nominate discs to be considered for each award. A panel of critics culls the list to six discs per category before selecting one winner for each category. It is from these winners that a smaller group of critics chooses the Record of the Year, and the subsequent specialty awards presented at the Awards Ceremony (Artist of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Editor’s Choice, Special Achievement, an Innovation Award, Young Artist of the Year, and Record Label of the Year). Winners are featured in Gramophone’s “Awards” issue.
Sir Andrew Davis has a prolific recording history, having numerous releases with Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics International, Capriccio, EMI, CBS, and Sony Records. This is his first recording with Onyx Classics.
Maestro Davis was created a Commander of the British Empire in 1992 in recognition of his services to British music, and in 1999 he was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List. In 1991, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society/Charles Heidsieck Music Award.
Sir Andrew Davis has been Lyric Opera of Chicago’s music director since 2000, and will conduct four of this season’s eight productions: a new production of Alban Berg’s Lulu, a revival of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the David Hockney-Los Angeles Opera production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and a new production of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. As organist, Davis will accompany the Lyric Opera Chorus, conducted by Donald Nally, and perform solo works for Lyric’s Subscriber Appreciation Concert, Holly and Ivy, on December 14, 2008. Next June, Davis will conduct the company premiere of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Milan’s La Scala.
Davis’s orchestral engagements this season include numerous concerts with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester in Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra (for New Year’s Day, to be broadcast live), Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI at the Besançon Festival in France, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
More information about Sir Andrew is available on his web site at www.sirandrewdavis.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Andrew_Davis
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