Arizona's Phoenix Chorale wins Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance
The Phoenix Chorale, along with the Kansas City Chorale, will perform at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, on March 16. Read our press release or view details of the concert.
February 9, 2009
The Phoenix Chorale, under the direction of Artistic Director Charles Bruffy, has won the Grammy Award for "Best Small Ensemble Performance" for their recording Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary. Charles Bruffy and twenty members of the Phoenix Chorale accepted the award onstage in Los Angeles at the pre-telecast ceremony. A group of nearly seventy people including singers, staff, board members, family and friends attended the Grammy Awards.
"Winning the Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble is wonderful affirmation for the incredibly talented singers in the choir. It is the only classical Grammy Award that recognizes the ensemble as well as the conductor. This award recognizes singers past and present who have given so much of their time and talent to help us achieve our recent successes." said Joel Rinsema, Executive Director of the Phoenix Chorale.
The Phoenix Chorale earned a total of four nominations for the 51st annual Grammy Awards, the music industry's highest honors. The Phoenix Chorale's album entitled Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary was nominated for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Small Ensemble Performance." The Phoenix Chorale's joint recording with the Kansas City Chorale titled Rheinberger: Sacred Choral Works was nominated for "Best Choral Performance" and "Best Surround Sound Album." Both albums were released on the Chandos Records label.
Released in late September 2008, Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary is an international anthology and one of few discs featuring 20th and 21st century musical settings of ancient texts on the Virgin Mary. The album features noted American composers including Stephen Paulus and Jean Belmont Ford. The album includes the premiere recording of Belmont Ford's "Electa," which was originally commissioned by the Kansas City Chorale. The album also features "Three Latin Motets," written by a fresh voice in British choral composition, Cecilia McDowall.
Released in November 2007, Rheinberger: Sacred Choral Works is the third album in a series of joint-recordings featuring the Phoenix Chorale (then known as the Phoenix Bach Choir) and the Kansas City Chorale. The album features the often-overlooked music of Josef Rheinberger, a premiere organist and composer of organ music in his day, who was overshadowed by composers Brahms and Mendelssohn. Thrilled by the success of the two previous double-choir discs, Eternal Rest and Grechaninov: Passion Week, this disc was recorded on the request of Chandos Records.
In 2008, the Phoenix Chorale's recording Grechaninov: Passion Week, was nominated for four Grammy Awards, including "Best Classical Album," "Best Choral Performance," "Best Surround Sound Album," and won a Grammy for "Best Engineered Album, Classical." Grechaninov: Passion Week is the Phoenix Chorale's second joint-recording in a series of albums on the Chandos Record label with the Kansas City Chorale, also led by Artistic Director Charles Bruffy.
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