The Guitar and the Grammy
by Peggy Seehafer, Anthropologist

The Grammy Awards continue to celebrate the best in recording arts and sciences. Covering 105 categories, the awards honor recordings in many different musical fields such as pop, rock, jazz, classical, folk and more. A Grammy is awarded by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. The Grammy is the most popular international award for artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievements. It is independent of sales or chart positions.

In the category of classical guitar, thirteen Grammies have been awarded to artists during the last 47 years. Compared to the piano or the violin, this doesn’t seem very much. But the perception of the classical guitar and its popularity is strongly connected to prominent personalities and can be read off the numbers of Grammies. Right with the first Award in 1958, Andres Segovia received a Grammy. Through the sixties and the beginning of the seventies guitar music was honored with several Grammies for Laurindo Almeida and Julian Bream.

• 1958 - Andres Segovia in the category Best Classical Performance - Instrumentalist (Other Than Concerto-Scale Accompaniment) for his work: Segovia Golden Jubilee.
• 1958 - Sherwood Hall III, Laurindo Almeida and Salli Terri in the category Best Engineered Record (Classical) for their work: Duets With A Spanish Guitar mit Laurindo Almeida, Gitarre; Salli Terri, Gesang.
• 1960 - Laurindo Almeida two Grammys in the categories Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Duo (Other Than With Orchestral Accompaniment) for his work: The Spanish Guitars Of Laurindo Almeida and in Best Classical Performance - Vocal Or Instrumental - Chamber Music for: Conversations With The Guitar.
• 1961 - Laurindo Almeida in the category Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Duo (Without Orchestra) for: Reverie For Spanish Guitar.
• In 1963 the successful story of Julian Bream starts. In the category Best Classical Music Performance - Chamber Music, the Julian Bream Consort receive their first Grammy for: Evening Of Elizabethan Music
• 1964 - Laurindo Almeida in the category Best Instrumental Jazz Performance - Large Group Or Soloist With Large Group for his work: Guitar From Ipanema.
• 1966 - Julian Bream in the category Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Soloists (With Or Without Orchestra) for his work: Baroque Guitar (Works Of Bach, Sanz, Weiss, etc.).
• 1971- Julian Bream, Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra in the category Best Classical Performance - Instrumental Soloist Or Soloists (With Orchestra) for: Villa-Lobos: Concerto For Guitar.
• 1972 - John Christopher Williams und Julian Bream in the category Best Chamber Music Performance for: Julian And John (Works By Lawes, Carulli, Albeniz, Granados).

After a long pause, the perception of music seems to change with the new millennium. The classical guitar comes back into the limelight of the Grammy Award.

• 2000 - Sharon Isbin, Jens Schünemann and Tobias Lehmann in the category Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for their work: Dreams Of A World - Works Of Lauro, Ruiz-Pipo & Duarte.
• 2001 - Christopher Rouse, Sharon Isbin, Muhai Tang and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in the category Best Classical Contemporary Composition for: Rouse: Concert De Gaudí For Guitar & Orchestra.
• 2005 David Russel wins the Grammy in the category Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) for his work: Aire Latino.

Acoustic guitar music should find its way to the secret places of everybody´s soul (freely adopted from Platon, 427 v.Chr.). Hopefully, the Awards for Sharon Isbin and David Russell will help to restart a renaissance of the classical guitar.
The Hermann Hauser Guitar Foundation will contribute its part to promote classical and acoustic guitar music.

http://www.anthropologen-kontor.com

June 14, 2005