Marc-André Hamelin on Cover of Gramophone!

Cover Photo Credits: Ben Ealovega

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin recently spoke with Michelle Assay from Gramophone for the cover story of the November 2025 issue. Together, they discussed the process and inspiration behind Hamelin’s latest album, Found Objects / Sound Objects, which includes works by Cage, Marirano, Wolpe, Oswald, Wyner, and even Hamelin himself. Hamelin wanted “a means to put together some repertoire that would have been very difficult, or even impossible, to inject into other projects,” he says. This idea of fragmentation is most apparent in John Oswald’s Tip, a 2021 Hamelin-commissioned piece, which injects upwards of 40 musical clippings from a variety of genres from classical to jazz to pop. Nonetheless, Hamlin’s goal remains the same: “It’s always about sharing with the audience,” he says. “It’s my fantasy that [music] could really express itself semantically, with chapters, paragraphs, sentences, punctuation. Not to mention, of course, ideas. I have this fantasy that whatever I play, in whatever way I play it, could be understood as a narrative, a pure narrative.”

Found Objects / Sound Objects closes with Hamelin’s own composition Hexansabbat, commissioned for Le Piano Symphonique festival in Lucerne and premiered by Yoav Levanon in 2024. Jed Distler, who reviewed the album in the same issue for Gramophone, comments: “Imagine the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique’s stark raving mad finale and Liszt’s Scherzo und Marsch first paired together, then chopped to bits, and then radically reharmonised to 21st-century specifications, with more than a few hints of Carl Stalling’s Warner Brothers cartoon soundtracks tossed into the mix.” 

Distler concludes: “Found Objects / Sound Objects may be Hamelin’s most uncompromising, most personal and most interesting release to date.”

Read the full piece here.

Stream the album here.

Photo Credits: Ben Ealovega

Congratulations to our 8VA GRAMMY® Nominees

Christopher Cerrone: Don’t Look Down, performed by Sandbox Percussion

Best Classical Compendium

Cerrone: Don’t Look Down

Sandbox Percussion; Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Christopher Cerrone, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney & Mike Tierney, producers

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Cerrone: Don’t Look Down

Christopher Cerrone, composer (Conor Hanick & Sandbox Percussion)

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Cerrone: Don’t Look Down

Mike Tierney, engineer; Alan Silverman, mastering engineer (Sandbox Percussion)

Don’t Look Down, from contemporary chamber music specialists Sandbox Percussion, reflects the group’s deep connection, friendship, and 10 years of music-making with composer Christopher Cerrone. A bold exploration of the endless possibilities of percussion, Don’t Look Down is a testament to the evolving power of music and collaboration.

Stream the album here.

Kris Bowers: The Wild Robot, featuring Sandbox Percussion

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television)

The Wild Robot

Kris Bowers, composer

Sandbox Percussion created innovative percussion sounds for The Wild Robot (DreamWorks, 2024), an animated science fiction film directed by Chris Sanders, with music by Kris Bowers. The earthy soundtrack uses a variety of found instruments played by Sandbox Percussion—glass bottles, metal pans, cardboard tubes, coils, coffee mugs, buckets, mixing bowls, chains, an oxygen tank—to bring to life the heartwarming story of Roz, a robot who is stranded on a desert island and learns to use kindness as a survival skill.

Stream the album here.

Beloved: Anne Akiko Meyers, Grant Gershon, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale

Best Choral Performance

Childs: In the Arms of the Beloved

Grant Gershon, conductor (Billy Childs, Dan Chmielinski, Christian Euman, Larry Koonse, Lyris Quartet, Anne Akiko Meyers, Carol Robbins & Luciana Souza; Los Angeles Master Chorale)

Anne Akiko Meyers offers the world premiere recording of Billy Childs’ In the Arms of the Beloved—a requiem for Childs’ mother and the centerpiece of the album—as well as Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby and Ola Gjeilo’s Serenity. All feature the supreme voices of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon.

Stream the album here.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Michael Repper, Curtis Stewart, and the National Philharmonic

Best Orchestral Performance

Coleridge-Taylor: Toussaint L’Ouverture; Ballade Op. 4; Suites From ‘24 Negro Melodies’

Michael Repper, conductor (National Philharmonic)

Best Classical Instrumental Solo 

Coleridge-Taylor: 3 Selections From ‘24 Negro Melodies’

Curtis Stewart; Michael Repper, conductor (National Philharmonic)

Conductor Michael Repper, violinist Curtis Stewart, and the National Philharmonic celebrate the 150th anniversary of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s birth with the world premiere studio recordings of the tone poem Toussaint L’Ouverture and Ballade Op. 4 for Violin and Orchestra. Also included is a newly uncovered suite of 5 Negro Melodies as arranged by Coleridge-Taylor, paired with modern recompositions of 3 Negro Melodies arranged by Curtis Stewart, Hamilton Berry, and Andrew Roitstein. 

Stream the album here.

Karen LeFrak: ROMÁNTICO

Producer of the Year, Classical

Elaine Martone

Karen LeFrak: ROMÁNTICO

Sharon Isbin, Enrico Lopez-Yañez & Orchestra Of St. Luke’s

ROMÁNTICO, by composer Karen LeFrak, features Sharon Isbin, one of the great guitar soloists of our time. The recording includes the world premiere of the three-movement Miami Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra, LeFrak’s homage to the musical heritage of Miami, the New York-based composer’s second home. 

Stream the album here.

Final round GRAMMY® voting opens on December 12, 2025.

Michael Repper Champions Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in New York Times Feature

Photo Credit (left to right): András Grausz, Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Michael Repper embarked on a massive research and recording project of the composer’s works.

Eleanor Stanford from The New York Times spoke with Repper about this undertaking, which included going note by note through Coleridge-Taylor’s manuscripts, unearthed by the Library of Congress and the British Library, and ensuring that each piece was performable and accessible. Among those published include Coleridge-Taylor’s “24 Negro Melodies,” which is featured on Repper’s recent album with the National Philharmonic and violinist Curtis Stewart.

Repper remarks that engaging with Coleridge-Taylor’s music is important “because it reminds us how much passion, emotion, and love can be in every note.” He believes that the composer deserves to be widely appreciated because the “quality of his musicianship, the quality of his writing, merits it.”

Read the full article from The New York Times here.

Listen to the album here.

Photo Credit: Elman Studio

The Shepherd School of Music Highlighted in Classical Voice North America

Photo Credit: Brandon Martin

The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, with highlights that include seven world premieres by the school’s composition faculty: Shih-Hui Chen’s The Birds Are Real, Ambushed From Ten Directions, Richard Lavenda’s Upon Further Reflection, Anthony Brandt’s Chamber Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Kurt Stallman’s The Fruit and the Work, Karim Al-Zand’s A Joint Interest, Arthur Gottschalk’s Tombeaux: pour un création d’une rapsodie, and Pierre Jalbert’s Another Starry Night.

Reporting for Classical Voice North America, James Bash met with Dean of Music Matthew Loden, who spoke of the Shepherd School’s unique position as “a conservatory inside of a research university,” which brings “sophisticated, academically bright and musically brilliantly talented students who want to have the bespoke musical experience.” Loden also mentions its small body of students, with an enrollment of 285, citing that “our size allows us to concentrate on what our students need to be successful in the future.”

Miguel Harth-Bedoya recently joined the faculty as director of orchestra and professor of conducting, following 20 years leading the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. After attending a rehearsal with one of Harth-Bedoya’s student conductors, Bash remarks that his “engaging, enthusiastic teaching style is contagious.”

Read the full article from Classical Voice North America here.

Photo Credit: Michael Stravato

Anne Akiko Meyers Featured in Cover Story for Strings Magazine

GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers speaks with Megan Westberg from Strings Magazine for the cover story for the November-December 2025 issue. Westberg hails Meyers as a “stalwart champion of contemporary composers,” highlighting the recent release of three albums of contemporary music, with two more on the way.

Within the past year, Meyers’ recording output features Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra for violin and orchestra, Beloved (In the Arms of the Beloved) by Billy Childs, and Philip Glass Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. Upcoming projects for Meyers include commissioned recordings of Adam Schoenberg’s violin concerto Orchard in Fog and Eric Whitacre’s The Pacific Has No Memory with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which premiered to a sold-out crowd at Carnegie Hall in May 2025.

Meyers comments on the necessity of new music in the modern landscape of recording and performance: “You want music that grows…it’s a reflection of our times, our culture, and it just resonates, I think, so deeply in our hearts when we listen to music that makes us feel.”

Read the full piece here.

(Credit Jamie Pham)

Alexander Shelley Featured on "Fred Plotkin on Fridays"

The celebrated conductor Alexander Shelley appeared on the IDAGIO show “Fred Plotkin on Fridays.” The author of Opera 101 and Classical Music 101, Plotkin is a passionate opera expert who speaks with fascinating people in the music world every Friday.

In this episode, Plotkin speaks with the distinguished English conductor, currently serving as the Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Shelley is also the music director of the Naples Philharmonic (Florida), incoming principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, and incoming music director of the Pacific Symphony.

Born in 1979 to concert pianist parents, Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany before winning first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors Competition, which marked the start of his acclaimed international career. A passionate and articulate advocate for the role of music in society, Shelley has spearheaded multiple ground-breaking projects, unlocking creativity in the next generation and bringing symphonic music to new audiences.

Listen to the conversation here.

Sandbox Percussion Featured on KMTV, Nebraska

Sandbox Percussion, which the New York Times has called “exhilarating” and the Guardian “utterly mesmerizing,” appeared at KANEKO, in Omaha, to perform brand-new music by Andy Akiho, who joined the quartet on steelpan.

For this new piece, as a quintet, they're building on the success of their Grammy-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-finalist work Seven Pillars, which has captivated audiences across 40+ performances worldwide, from Paris to Beijing.

The performance gave Omaha audiences the first glimpse into their new project, brought to life at KANEKO, whose unique creative environment is shaping the new piece. The event was previewed by KMTV 3 News Now.

"A lot of the sounds we're making on these instruments are ones that you wouldn't always necessarily hear. We have some wooden sticks on a vibraphone," Victor Caccese, from Sandbox Percussion, said.

Watch the full segment here.

Marin Alsop Joins PENTATONE Roster

(Credit: Andrej Grilc)

PENTATONE is proud to announce that Marin Alsop, one of the foremost conductors of our time and a powerful and inspiring voice, has joined the label’s roster of distinguished artists. Among the recording plans that will form part of this new partnership are extensive symphonic surveys of Mahler and Shostakovich. Alsop will become the first woman conductor ever to record these surveys.

“I’ve had the great honor of working with Marin Alsop for two decades, including as a composer under her baton, and in helping guide her wide and diverse recording strategy,” said Sean Hickey, the label’s managing director. “We welcome her to PENTATONE and we look forward to shaping her legacy further in the coming years with new recordings of timeless orchestral music.”

“I’m delighted to join the roster of a record label as respected as PENTATONE,” said Alsop, who has been making acclaimed recordings since the early 1990s, championing not only European classics but also American composers and contemporary music. Alsop is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, among other appointments. “These symphonic surveys will be a thrilling undertaking, and I am confident that this wonderful music will reach new audiences around the world with PENTATONE’s support,” she added.

The Mahler symphony cycle will feature both the Philharmonia and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, demonstrating Alsop’s close relationship with the two ensembles and showcasing their unique sound and performing traditions.

The first recording planned for release is Mahler’s poignant Symphony No. 9 — his last completed symphony — with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, for which Alsop served as Chief Conductor from 2019 to 2025. She is now Honorary Conductor with the orchestra. The recording is scheduled to be released by the end of 2027.

More details on this and Alsop’s other upcoming recording projects on PENTATONE will be announced soon. 

(Credit: Grant Leighton)

Alsop is a visionary leader and a passionate advocate for the transformative power of music. She is celebrated for her innovative programming, dedication to audience engagement, and commitment to education. Alsop has broken barriers throughout her career, becoming the first woman to lead major orchestras in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain. As The New York Times aptly described, she is “a formidable musician and a powerful communicator,” and “a conductor with a vision.” 

Her discography comprises more than 200 titles, some of which have been recognized by BBC Music and have received Emmy nominations, in addition to GRAMMY, Classical BRIT, and Gramophone awards. She has recorded works from the standard repertoire and by a variety of contemporary composers. Her recordings include releases by Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Sony Classical, as well as acclaimed Naxos cycles of Brahms with the London Philharmonic, Dvořák with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Prokofiev with the São Paulo Symphony. Her 2024 album featuring John Adams’ City Noir, performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, was nominated for a Best Orchestral Performance GRAMMY Award. Her latest album is Abstractions, featuring music by Anna Clyne and performances by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Naxos). Other recent releases include a live account of Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus; a Kevin Puts collection with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; a Margaret Brouwer collection and a complete Schumann symphonic cycle for Naxos, and the world premiere recordings of two concertos by Malek Jandali for Cedille Records, all with the Vienna RSO. 

One of the leading classical music labels in the world, PENTATONE presents a diverse range of world-class artists, and is dedicated to premium quality productions captured in exceptional sound. Alsop joins a renowned lineup that includes conductors Vladimir Jurowski, René Jacobs and Esa-Pekka Salonen, singers Piotr Beczala, Lisette Oropesa, Javier Camarena, Ian Bostridge and Magdalena Kožená, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Francesco Piemontesi, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, guitarist Sean Shibe and renowned ensembles that include the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Czech Philharmonic. 

Postcard from Sun Valley: Sun Valley Music Festival Featured in "The Strad"

“The Sun Valley Music Festival is a unique experience where visitors can hear free concerts performed by first-rate musicians in a beautiful setting,” reports Emma Baker, editor from The Strad, who visited the festival this past summer. That setting is in Sun Valley, central Idaho, 130 miles north of the border with Nevada, and about 5,945 feet above sea level.

The festival is in its 41st season, and for 31 years it has been in the hands of its music director, the globetrotting Alasdair Neale. The Sun Valley Music Festival orchestra is made up of top players and section principals from major U.S. ensembles, such as the Buffalo and Rochester philharmonics, and the Colorado, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle symphonies, among others. Most return year after year.

Read the full piece here.

For Your GRAMMY® Consideration

Clients are listed in alphabetical order by category:

—Best Orchestral Performance—

Coleridge-Taylor 
Michael Repper, Curtis Stewart, National Philharmonic 


—Best Choral Performance—

Beloved featuring Anne Akiko Meyers
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon

Chamber Music by James Joyce, Vol. 1
Desmond Earley, Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, Solstice Ensemble


—Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance—

Philip Glass: Echorus
Anne Akiko Meyers, Aubree Oliverson, Academy Virtuosi from the Colburn School 

Woodland Songs: Music of Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha' Tate, Pura Fé, and Dvořák
Dover Quartet

Dvořák & Price: Piano Quintets
Marc-André Hamelin, Takács Quartet

French Impressions: Chamber Music by Chausson & Tailleferre
Rachel Barton Pine, Pacifica Quartet, Orion Weiss

Andy Akiho: Pentalateral I
Sandbox Percussion, Andy Akiho


—Best Classical Instrumental Solo—

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto No. 1
Anne Akiko Meyers, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel

Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra from Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra, Last Dance at the Surf, & To the New World
Anne Akiko Meyers, Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller

Haochen Zhang Plays Beethoven and Liszt
Haochen Zhang

Karen LeFrak: Miami Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra from ROMÁNTICO
Sharon Isbin, Enrico Lopez-Yañez

Beethoven: Hammerklavier Piano Sonatas Op 106 & Op 2 No 3
Marc-André Hamelin

3 Selections from “24 Negro Melodies” from Coleridge-Taylor
Curtis Stewart, Michael Repper

Stories (re)Traced
Nancy Zhou

J. S. Bach: The Complete Violin Concertos
James Ehnes, National Arts Centre Orchestra

Corelli Violin Sonatas, Op. 5
Rachel Barton Pine, David Schrader, John Mark Rozendaal, Brandon Acker

Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87
Yulianna Avdeeva


—Best Classical Compendium—

Beloved
Anne Akiko Meyers, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon

Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra / Last Dance at the Surf / To the New World
Anne Akiko Meyers, Albany Symphony, David Alan Miller

A Century of New Sounds
Dover Quartet, Imani Winds, Kristin Andlauer, Justin Bernardi, Dasara Beta, Maya Anjali Buchanan, Matthew Christakos, Diogo Fernandes, Emmalena Huning, Sumin Kim, Ania Lewis, Delvan Lin, Daniel Matsukawa, Tae McLoughlin, Katherine Needleman, David Shifrin, Noah Urquidi, Patrick Williams, Jiacheng Xiong, Amy Yang, Natalie Zhu

Cerrone: Don’t Look Down
Sandbox Percussion, Conor Hanick, Elspeth Davis

Censored Anthems
Ian Niederhoffer, Aubree Oliverson, Parlando

ROMÁNTICO
Karen LeFrak, Sharon Isbin, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Enrico Lopez-Yañez


—Best Contemporary Classical Composition—

Billy Childs: In the Arms of the Beloved featuring Anne Akiko Meyers

Michael Daugherty: Blue Electra featuring Anne Akiko Meyers

Philip Glass: New Chaconne featuring Anne Akiko Meyers

Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha' Tate: "Woodland Songs" featuring the Dover Quartet

Karen LeFrak: Miami Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra from ROMÁNTICO

Andy Akiho: Pentalateral I featuring Sandbox Percussion

Chris Cerrone: Don’t Look Down featuring Sandbox Percussion


—Best Engineered Album, Classical—

Karen LeFrak: ROMÁNTICO
Gintas Norvila, Jennifer Nulsen

Coleridge-Taylor
Rick Jacobsohn, Jeanne Velonis

Cerrone: Don’t Look Down featuring Sandbox Percussion
Mike Tierney, Alex Conroy  


—Producer Of The Year, Classical—

Coleridge-Taylor featuring Michael Repper
Judith Sherman


—Best Arrangement, Instrumental, or A Cappella—

Deep River from Coleridge-Taylor 
Curtis Stewart, Hamilton Berry 


—Best Album Notes—

Coleridge-Taylor
Michael Repper

Click here for the official First Round GRAMMY® voting guide from the Recording Academy.