We are proud to recognize alumni and faculty members of the Steans Music Institute who have received 2023 Grammy Award nominations. The 65th Annual Grammy Awards broadcast is scheduled for February 5, 2023.
Bassist Linda May Han Oh (Jazz 2008), Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, and Nicholas Payton & Matthew Stevens are nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for their work on New Standards Vol. 1. Originally from Malaysia and raised in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, Oh was voted the Bassist of the Year for 2018–2021 by the Jazz Journalists Association, in 2019 by Hothouse Magazine, and in 2022 by JazzTimes.
Saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf (Jazz 2008) is nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album with Architecture of Storms, as well as for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella, with his arrangement of Bon Iver’s “Minnesota, WI” on that album. On his debut jazz orchestra release, Assembly of Shadows (2019), Le Boeuf established himself as a unique voice with a penchant for cinematic majesty and melody-driven themes. Hailed by the New York Times for his music’s “overwhelming beauty,” he earned Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition and for Best Arrangement the following year. In 2021, he released the complementary sequel Architecture of Storms, showcasing his acrobatic saxophone playing while exploring the diversity of his emotions and influences.
As members of the Dover Quartet, two RSMI alumni are up for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: violinists Joel Link (Piano & Strings 2009) and Bryan Lee (Piano & Strings 2009, 2010) are key players in the “beguiling freshness and spontaneity“ (The Strad) on their album Beethoven: Complete String Quartets, Volume 2 - The Middle Quartets, released by Chicago’s own Cedille label. Link is an active soloist and chamber musician and has been a top prize winner of numerous competitions, including the Johansen International Competition in Washington, DC, and the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England. Lee has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University Symphony Orchestras, among others. He was awarded the bronze medal at the 2005 Stulberg International String Competition and won second prize at the 2004 Kingsville Young Performers Competition.
Tenor Nicholas Phan (Singers 2005) is nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, which also features musicians from The Knights and Brooklyn Rider who are alumni of the Piano & Strings program. Twice previously on the shortlist for that same Grammy—the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the category—Phan is “one of the world's most remarkable singers” (Boston Globe) and the artistic director of the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, which he co-founded in 2010. Many of his previous solo albums have been recognized on “best of” lists by the New York Times, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, and WQXR, and he was also featured on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella led by Pierre Boulez.
Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Singers 2006) is nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with how do I find you, a collection of commissioned songs on themes that arose across the pandemic. The two-time Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. She has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, as well as with over 80 symphony orchestras worldwide, frequently in works by Mahler. Earlier this month she was appointed co-director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West.
RSMI alumni Erin Morley (Singers 2004, 2006) and Joshua Hopkins (Singers 2005) are included in the Best Opera Recording nomination for Aucoin: Eurydice, which captured the premiere production at the Metropolitan Opera. A recipient of the Beverly Sills Award and a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Morley has garnered huge critical acclaim worldwide and she regularly appears on the greatest opera stages, from the Met to the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, Opéra National de Paris, and more. Having established himself as a prominent leading artist throughout the United States and Canada, Hopkins appears regularly with the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Washington National Opera among many other companies, and has performed under the batons of such renowned conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, Alan Gilbert, Matthew Halls, James Gaffigan, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Hans Graf.
RSMI alumna and previous faculty member (2016, 2021) Michelle DeYoung (Singers 1995) is a soloist in the Best Choral Performance–nominated recording Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11. The mezzo-soprano appears frequently with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Met Orchestra (in Carnegie Hall), among others. The multi–Grammy Award–winning artist has also worked with some of the best conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, and many more.
This article has been updated to recognize the Grammy nomination received by tenor Nicholas Phan. We regret the omission in the original publication.