Oberlin Alumni Win Grammys at 63rd Annual Awards Ceremony

Winners of this year's Grammy Awards include 10 Oberlin Conservatory alumni across five different classical music categories.

March 15, 2021

Cathy Partlow Strauss

Five Grammy-winning album covers that feature the performances of Oberlin alumni.
Grammy-winning albums that feature the performances of Oberlin alumni.
Photo credit: Oberlin Conservatory

Winners of this year's Grammy Awards include 10 Oberlin Conservatory alumni across five different categories. These graduates hail from Oberlin's vocal studies, composition, strings, woodwinds, and brass performance programs. They have forged careers on operatic stages, in orchestras in leadership positions, in the chamber music realm, and in new music.

Best Opera Recording: Denyce Graves '85, for the Metropolitan Opera's recording of Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: Bass-Baritone Dashon Burton '05 and Experiential Orchestra Music Director James Blachly ’02 for Smyth: The Prison

Best Chamber Music Performance: Pacifica Quartet first violinist Simin Ganatra '96, for Contemporary Voices

Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Christopher Rouse '71 (1949-2019), a Pulitzer- and multi-Grammy-winning composer, for his Symphony No. 5

Best Orchestral Performance: The numerous Oberlin alumni of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Ives: Complete Symphonies, including Principal Clarinet Boris Allakhverdyan '06, Bass Trombone John Lofton '77, Associate Principal Oboe Marion Arthur Kuszyk '88, Solo English Horn Carolyn Hove '80, Assistant Principal Viola Ben Ullery '04

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