PRESS RELEASE: Tuesday, December 6, 2016

SEATTLE SYMPHONY RECEIVES TWO GRAMMY NOMINATIONS FOR ITS THIRD ALL-DUTILLEUX ALBUM

Seattle Symphony’s Recording of Henri Dutilleux’s Sur le même accord; Les citations; Mystère de l'instant & Timbres, espace, mouvement was Nominated for:

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Best Surround Sound Album

Seattle, WA – It was announced today that the Seattle Symphony has received two nominations in the classical category for the 2017 Grammy Awards®. The nominations, both for the third installment in the all-Dutilleux series on the Seattle Symphony Media label, are Best Engineered Album and Best Surround Sound Album in the classical category. About the Recording

“… a nearly unparalleled recording project in contemporary classical music…. absolutely confirmed with the release of the third and final disc, a thing of astonishing beauty.”– WQXR Radio

Part of a three-disc, multi-year recording project, Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony released the third volume of orchestral works of Henri Dutilleux on Seattle Symphony Media on August 12, 2016. The recording includes studio recordings of Sur le même accord featuring Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, Les citations, Mystère de l’instant, and live performance of Timbres, espace, mouvement. “We’re absolutely thrilled,” said President & CEO Simon Woods. “We have a lot of things in our favor: a great orchestra, a great hall and an absolutely world-class engineer. Nobody makes an orchestra sound better than Dmitriy Lipay.” Click here [English, French] for a short video featuring Ludovic Morlot, Augustin Hadelich, Seattle Symphony Principal Bass Jordan Anderson and President & CEO Simon Woods on this recording project. Digital downloads and CDs are available through iTunes, Amazon, Qobuz, Primephonic, Acoustic Sounds and HD Tracks. Recordings can be streamed through Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Google Play, Rhapsody and Microsoft Groove.

Photo caption: Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony in a live performance of Timbres, espace, mouvement at Benaroya Hall during Delta Air Lines Masterworks Season on April 28, 2016. Photo by Brandon Patoc.

About Seattle Symphony Media

Launched in 2014, Seattle Symphony Media is the Seattle Symphony’s independent in-house record label. The Symphony has an extensive catalogue of nearly 150 recordings, which have brought forth two Grammy Awards, 23 Grammy Award nominations and two Emmy Awards throughout its history. Under the direction of Music Director Ludovic Morlot, and President & CEO Simon Woods, the Symphony's in-house record label features both “core repertoire” and some of the eclectic and contemporary programming for which the Seattle Symphony has become recognized. The label includes both studio recordings and performances captured live in concert, allowing the organization an unprecedented breadth of repertoire choices.

All recordings are made in the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall and engineered by the Grammy-nominated recording engineer Dmitriy Lipay. Using the Symphony’s own state-of-the- art in-house recording studio, recordings have been engineered to audiophile standards and aim to capture as realistically as possible the sound of the orchestra performing onstage with naturalistic imaging, depth of field and dynamic range. Distributed by Naxos of America, the recordings are available in both physical and digital formats from a variety of retailers. Digital content is available in stereo, “Mastered for iTunes,” 96k 24-bit high resolution and 5.1 surround sound.

About Ludovic Morlot

The French conductor Ludovic Morlot has been Music Director of the Seattle Symphony since 2011. Amongst the many highlights of his tenure, the orchestra has won two Grammy Awards and gave an exhilarating performance at Carnegie Hall in 2014, as reported in the The New York Times: “The performance Mr. Morlot coaxed from his players was rich with shimmering colors and tremulous energy.”

During the 2016–2017 season Morlot and the Seattle Symphony will continue to invite their audiences to “listen boldly,” presenting Ravel’s L'enfant et les sortilèges, completing their cycle of Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos and several world premieres including compositions by Agata Zubel and Gabriel Prokofiev. All of this will be complemented by the Seattle Symphony’s highly innovative series, Sonic Evolution and [untitled]. This season will also see the release of several more recordings on the Orchestra’s label, Seattle Symphony Media. A box set of music by Dutilleux was recently released to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

This season, Morlot will return to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic and make his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra. He has regular relationships with the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has also conducted the symphony orchestras in Cleveland and Philadelphia. Morlot has a particularly strong connection with the Boston Symphony Orchestra having been Seiji Ozawa Fellowship Conductor in 2001 and subsequently appointed assistant conductor for the orchestra and their Music Director James Levine (2004– 07). Since then he has conducted the orchestra in subscription concerts in Boston, at Tanglewood and on a tour to the west coast of America.

In Europe, Morlot will this season make his debut with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, in the closing concert of the prestigious Wien Modern Festival. He will also make his debut with the Netherlands Radio and Helsinki Philharmonic orchestras as well as return to the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Last season’s engagements included the DSO Berlin and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London and on tour in Germany. Other recent notable performances have included the Budapest Festival, Czech Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo Philharmonic and Tonhalle orchestras. Morlot served as conductor in residence with the Orchestre National de Lyon under David Robertson (2002–04).

Ludovic Morlot was Chief Conductor of La Monnaie for three years (2012–14). During this time he conducted several new productions including La Clemenza di Tito, Jenufa and Pelléas et Mélisande. Concert performances, both in Brussels and Aix-en-Provence, included repertoire by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Britten, Webern and Bruneau.

Trained as a violinist, Morlot studied conducting at the in London and then at the Royal College of Music as recipient of the Conducting Fellowship. Morlot was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 in recognition of his significant contribution to music. He is Chair of Orchestral Conducting Studies at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle.

About the Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony is one of America's leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world — the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall — in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year. The Seattle Symphony has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season. The orchestra has made nearly 150 recordings and has received two Grammy Awards, 23 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. In 2014 the Symphony launched its in-house recording label, Seattle Symphony Media.