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Playlist: Classical Music Grammy Nominees and Winners 2025

The Claquers

The 67th Grammy Awards ceremony, held on Monday, February 3, took place amid a natural hazard. Reflecting on Covid-19, feminist protests, and the “American Dream”: the winning works in Classical Music either raise timeless artistic dilemmas or address socially vital issues relevant for the Western society. Let us listen to the nominees and winners in Classical Music, as well as works related to the other categories. Full playlists of the works can be found at the end of the article.

Best Orchestral Performance

Gustavo Dudamel, the orchestra of Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz received two awards for their 2024 album Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina: Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Classical Compendium. With this, the Venezuelan conductor, 44, becomes a 7-time Grammy winner.

Alongside the album’s core work, the ballet Revolución Diamantina, which brought Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, 60, her first Grammy in Best Contemporary Classical Composition, the release contains orchestra piece Kauyumari, and violin concerto Altar de cuerda (soloist María Dueñas). The album addresses one of the most trendy topics in the war-less Western world: Covid-19, feminism (the composer’s work is referring to Mexico’s Glitter Revolution against violence towards women), and presents another 3-part romantic violin concerto mixing nationally distinctive music with an old-fashioned Western romantic form. 

Nominees for Best Orchestral Performance:

Best Classical Compendium

Other nominees for the Best Classical Music Compendium:

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Other composers nominees in the category:

Best Opera Recording 

Recorded soon after Kaya Saariaho’s death opera Adriana Mater — Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor; Fleur Barron, Axelle Fanyo, Nicholas Phan & Christopher Purves; Jason O’Connell, producer (San Francisco Symphony; San Francisco Symphony Chorus; Timo Kurkikangas) – received a Grammy in Best Opera Recording. Saariaho’s second opera, written in 2006 with a libretto by Lebanese-born French author and former war correspondent Amin Maalouf, explores the story of a woman giving birth to a child conceived through rape by a soldier.  Listen to the audio here.

Nominees for Best Opera Recording:

During the Grammy award ceremony, a fragment from the opera The Hours was also performed:

Best Choral Performance

The winning album Ochre by The Crossing and Donald Nally, conductor, gathers works by three leading American composers Ayanna Woods, George Lewis, Caroline Shaw written in 2020-2022 and explores the ingenuity of composers in choral writing.

Nominees for the Best Choral Performance:

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

Caroline Shaw becomes 5-times Grammy winner with a second album Rectangles and Circumstance in co-production with Sō Percussion.

Nominees for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance:

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Just as every composer dreams of writing and staging their own opera, Goldberg Variations stands as a cornerstone for pianists. The recording of this Bach masterpiece earned Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. 

Nominees in Best Classical Instrumental Solo:

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

Beyond The Years, winner of Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, features previously unpublished songs by Florence Price, performed by soloist Karen Slack and pianist Michelle Cann. Florence Price (1887–1953), a graduate of the New England Conservatory, is recognized as the first Black woman whose work was premiered by a major American orchestra.

Nominees in Best Classical Solo Vocal Album:

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

Plot Armor by Taylor Eigsti took the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album award for style-versatile mix of an electric jazz, fusion, and more.

Nominees for the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album:

Best Instrumental Composition

Composer Pascal Le Boeuf won his first Grammy for Strands — a jazz/fusion track from the album Are We Dreaming The Same Dream? performed by Akropolis Reed Quintet, Pascal Le Boeuf, and Christian Euman. The album explores themes of identity, collective memory, and the concept of the “American Dream,” blending music by Geri Allen, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Leonard Bernstein. 

Nominees for the Best Instrumental Composition:

Producer Of The Year, Classical Music

Elaine Martone has became a Producer of the Year in Classical Music for the projects over the last year: Bartók: String Quartet No.3; Suite From ‘The Miraculous Mandarin‘ (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra), The Book Of Spells (Merian Ensemble), Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra), Divine Mischief (Julian Bliss, J. Eric Wilson & Baylor University Wind Ensemble), Joy! (John Morris Russell & Cincinnati Pops), Schubert: The Complete Impromptus (Gerardo Teissonnière), Stranger At Home (Shachar Israel), and Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra), Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 (Franz Welser-Möst & The Cleveland Orchestra).

Other nominees included: Erica Brenner (works with Orli Shaham, Apollo’s Fire and Jeannette Sorrell, Alan Choo and Apollo’s Fire, CORE Ensemble), Christoph Franke (a Creative Producer of Berliner Philharmoniker), Morten Lindberg (38-time nominee and 1-time Grammy winner Norwagian music producer and sound engeneer), Dmitriy Lipay (Russian music producer who worked on Ortiz: Revolución Diamantina), Dirk Sobotka (sound producer at Soundmirror).

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Winner: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Bates: Resurrexit — Mark Donahue & John Newton, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra).

Nominees:

Other categories and its winners:

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella: Bridge Over Troubled Water — Jacob Collier, Tori Kelly & John Legend, arrangers (Jacob Collier Featuring John Legend & Tori Kelly)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: Alma — Erin Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick & Amanda Taylor, arrangers (säje Featuring Regina Carter). 

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein — Bradley Cooper & Yannick Nézet-Séguin, artists; Bradley Cooper, Yannick Nézet-Séguin & Jason Ruder, compilation producers; Steven Gizicki, music supervisor.

Best Music Film: American Symphony — Jon Batiste, Matthew Heineman, video director; Lauren Domino, Matthew Heineman & Joedan Okun, video producers.

Listen to the full playlists of the nominees and winners’ works here:

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Best Classical Compendium

Best Solo Vocal Album

Best Instrumental Solo

Best Chamber Music

Best Choral Performance

Best Orchestral Performance