This year’s Latin Grammy Awards, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, recognised two classical categories: Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The prizes highlighted both established voices in Latin American music and new work centred on contemporary creation.
Best Classical Album
The Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album went to Isabel Dobarro for Kaleidoscope – Contemporary Piano Music by Female Composers from Around the World. The album, produced by Javier Monteverde, brings together works by women composers from different generations and regions, with an emphasis on recent repertoire.
Dobarro, a pianist from Santiago de Compostela known for her advocacy of music by women and her educational work, explores a wide stylistic range in this project.
The other nominees were:
• Brouwer, Erena & Others: Guitar Works — Ausiàs Parejo; José Luis Ruiz Del Puerto, producer
• Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina — María Dueñas; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Dmitry Lipay, producer (Los Angeles Philharmonic; Los Angeles Master Chorale)
• Radamés — São Paulo Chamber Soloists; São Paulo Chamber Soloists, producers
• Sisters of the Moon — Susana Gómez Vázquez; Gonzalo Noqué, producer
Best Classical Contemporary Composition
The award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition went to Gabriela Ortiz for Revolución Diamantina (Act I: The Sounds Cats Make, Act II: We Don’t Love Each Other, Act III: Borders and Bodies, Act IV: Speaking the Unspeakable). The work was recorded by Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Ortiz, one of Mexico’s leading contemporary composers, has long explored social themes and cross-genre approaches in her orchestral writing.
The other nominees were:
• Guitar Concerto (I: The Spirit Within, II: Le Tombeau de Viola Liuzzo, III: Devil’s Rag) — Giovanni Piacentini, composer (Eduardo García Barrios, Eliot Fisk, Orquesta Escuela Carlos Chávez)
• I Movimiento: La Visita, II Movimiento: Ritual Chamánico, III Movimiento: Introspección, IV Movimiento: Federico Alma Gitana — Marvin Camacho, composer (Marvin Camacho & Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Costa Rica)
As an added coincidence, Dobarro’s album includes Homenaje a Jesusa Palancares (Estudios entre preludios) by Gabriela Ortiz — the same composer who received this year’s Latin Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Ortiz thanked Dobarro on social media for featuring her piece.
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