The Edison Foundation in Hilversum, The Netherlands, has announced the winners of the 2010 classical Edison Awards. The winners include Austin-based professional choir Conspirare, which will receive the award in the Choral Music category for its CD Requiem.
The Edison Award is the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy®, and the award is Conspirare’s first such honor at the international level. Other 2010 classical Edison winners include the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, London Symphony Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and many other eminent ensembles and artists. Conspirare is the only North American winner.
Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson said: “Conspirare is deeply honored to be among the company of so many distinguished Edison winners. This international recognition is a great compliment to our wonderfully talented and dedicated singers who give so much of themselves to Conspirare’s audiences, both in live performances and on our recordings.”
Requiem was first released in the U.S. by the Clarion label in 2006 and garnered two Grammy nominations, for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical. In 2009 Conspirare’s present label Harmonia Mundi re-issued the disc in the U.S. and released it for the first time in Europe, making it eligible for the Dutch award nomination.
The 2010 awards will be presented during the Edison Ceremony on Friday, June 18 at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen, The Netherlands. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Dutch national television.
The Edison Award, named for the inventor of the phonograph, is the oldest and most prestigious Dutch music prize, presented since 1960. For a full list of winners as posted on the Edison’s Dutch-language website, click http://www.edisons.nl/klassiek/nieuws/winnaars-edison-klassiek-2010.
An English-language winners’ list is available on request. For more information in English about the Edison Award, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Award.
