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Penn State College of Arts and Architecture
Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State

Grammy Awards recognize artists presented by the Center for the Performing Arts

Cécile McLorin Salvant and Soweto Gospel Choir, artists who are part of the Center for the Performing Arts 2018–19 season, were among the winners when the 2019 Grammy Awards were announced Sunday, Feb. 10. Musicians presented by the Center for the Performing Arts in previous seasons also took home Grammys in a variety of categories.

“I am excited to see Grammy Awards bestowed on many of the artists we’ve been privileged to present,” said Center for the Performing Arts Director George Trudeau. “We proudly play a significant national role in supporting, and presenting for our audiences, the work of highly creative performing artists. I know all who have, and will, attend performances by our Grammy-winning artists share with me the delight in seeing them receive this well-deserved recognition.”

McLorin Salvant’s “The Window” earned a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Each of her previous two recordings, “For One to Love” and “Dreams and Daggers,” also won a Grammy in that category.

The singer, who made her State College premiere in a September 2017 concert at Schwab Auditorium, will return to Penn State as part of the Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour concert Friday, March 22, at Eisenhower Auditorium.

McLorin Salvant, who won the 2010 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, is a Miami native who brings to her singing a theatrical flair and a contemporary sensibility that have made her irresistible to audiences and critics alike.

South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir, which received a Grammy for Best World Music Album for “Freedom,” performed “Songs of the Free,” a program honoring Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday, in November at Eisenhower. The choir previously performed at Eisenhower in 2007.

Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, and its director Jeanette Sorrell won for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. The orchestra’s first Grammy win—and nomination—is shared with tenor Karim Sulayman for the recording “Songs of Orpheus.” The Cleveland orchestra has performed five times at Schwab, most recently in a November 2017 concert of Celtic and Appalachian Christmas music.

Spanish Harlem Orchestra, a salsa and Latin jazz ensemble from New York City, earned its third Grammy, this time for Best Tropical Latin Album for “Anniversary.” The orchestra made its Center for the Performing Arts debut in November 2017 at Eisenhower.

The new-music ensemble Kronos Quartet won for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for “Landfall,” its collaboration with storyteller-musician Laurie Anderson. Her experience of Hurricane Sandy inspired the recording. It’s the second Grammy for Kronos, which last appeared at Penn State in a 2009 concert at Eisenhower. The quartet has performed three times at the university, twice at Eisenhower and once at Schwab.

The Wayne Shorter Quartet, fronted by a masterful saxophonist, got the nod for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The quartet’s lone appearance at Penn State was in a 2002 concert at Eisenhower.