Grammy Nomination for Album Featuring Music by James Primosch
The album Catharge, with music composed by James Primosch, Dr. Robert Weiss Professor of Music, has received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance. Carthage was recorded by The Crossing, with Donald Nally conducting.
Carthage, which was released in May 2020, sprang from a series of pieces Primosch had written for The Crossing. The centerpiece is a setting for the Mass for the Day of St. Thomas Didymus, which combines the Catholic mass text with poems by Denise Levertov. Another piece is a setting of text by Marilynne Robinson; her novel Housekeeping gave the album its title. It was recorded before the pandemic and shutdowns.
“It's an amazing group of virtuoso singers and the recording sessions were thrilling,” says Primosch. “I would hear a take and think, oh that was great. Donald would say, ‘Let's do that one more time.’ So it's a really wonderful, wonderful project. I'm very happy and honored to be associated with them.”
Earlier this year, Primosch received the 2020 Virgil Thomson Award in Vocal Music, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His instrumental, vocal, and electronic compositions range from lyrical to religious to jazz-inspired. His music has been reviewed in the New Yorker, The New York Times, and numerous other publications, and has been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. His previous honors include a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a pianist he was a prizewinner at the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Rotterdam.
Learn more about how Primosch composes and watch a video about Carthage and Descent/Return, his other release this spring, in this recent OMNIA article.
Two Penn Arts & Sciences alumni also received Grammy nominations. In the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance category, Pacifica Quartet was nominated for its collaboration with Otis Murphy, Contemporary Voices, which includes a composition by Jennifer Higdon, GR’94.
John Legend, C’99, is a nominee in the Best R&B Album category for Bigger Love. He also was nominated for Best R&B Performance for his work with singer Jhené Aiko on her song, “Lightning & Thunder.”
