News & Events 2005-2006

Choral Director William Hammer Wins Two Grammy Awards

William Hammer, Blair’s director of choral music, won two Grammy Awards (the music industry’s top honor) in February in the categories of “Best Classical Album” and “Best Choral Performance” for the choral direction of a recording of an Ann Arbor composer’s epic classical work. The recording of William Bolcom’s “Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” performed by a cast of hundreds at Hill Auditorium in April 2005, received a total of nominations in four categories – 95, 96, 99 and 105.

A December 9 article by Roger Lelievre in the Ann Arbor News explained, “Bolcom’s work is a song cycle, setting to music the poems of William Blake. It famously took the composer 25 years to finish the piece, and while it has always been well regarded, its massive scale has limited the number of times it’s actually performed. So when the University Musical Society presented a 20th anniversary performance of the work April 8, 2004, in Hill Auditorium, it clearly was an event, and respected classical label Naxos took the opportunity to make a recording…The honor is only the latest for Bolcom, whose past accolades include a Pulitzer Prize and two previous Grammy nominations for works with his wife, Joan Morris, one of the soloists in ‘Songs.’ ” Both husband and wife are faculty members at the University of Michigan.

The article added that the concert involved some 450 performers from the University of Michigan, where William Hammer previously served as a graduate student instructor, conductor for the Orpheus Singers, assistant conductor of the Men’s Glee Club and one of four choir conductors for the April recording. He received his master of music in conducting from that same university this past May.

Lelievre noted, “Critics swooned over the resultant recording. In The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini named it one of the best classical albums of the year, calling it ‘a gripping live performance of this ambitious masterpiece, over two hours of music for orchestra, multiple choruses and soloists that audaciously synthesizes wildly diverse musical styles.’ ”

The Grammy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, was telecast February 8 on CBS. For more information, log on to www.grammy.com/awards/grammy/48Awards.aspx.
Posted 2/14

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