Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No.4 Nominated for GRAMMY

Nominations for the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards® were announced on 1st December 2010 by The Recording Academy®. Plaudits are due for a large number of classical musicians including Øyvind Gimse, Geir Inge Lotsberg, the Fred Sherry String Quartet and Nelson Freire.

Veteran Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been nominated for his Symphony No.4 under the Best Classical Contemporary Composition category. The Estonian composer was born near Tallinn in 1935 and is famed for his avant-garde experimentation.

After learning music at the  Tallinn Conservatory, 1976 saw Pärt introduced a technique called “tintinnabuli” (from the Latin, little bells):

“I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements —with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials —with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.”

Arvo Pärt is now 75 years old and his birthday was celebrated with the Arvo Pärt Festival 2010 held across several Estonian towns.

Symphony No. 4 is named “Los Angeles” and is dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It is Pärt’s first symphony written in over 37 years and was premiered in LA on 10th January 2009. It remains to be seen whether the GRAMMY jury will favour his music above that of Michael Daugherty, Hans Werner Henze, Magnus Lindberg and Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin.

The 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held on February 13th 2011 at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast live in high definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).


In This Story: Austria

Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe. It is composed of nine federated states, one of which is Vienna, Austria’s capital and its largest city.

It is bordered by Germany to the northwest; the Czech Republic to the north; Slovakia to the northeast; Hungary to the east; Slovenia and Italy to the south; and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of nearly 9 million people. While German is the country’s official language, many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects.

2 Recent Items: Austria

Sunak confronted over uk vote on gaza cease-fire at un 1

Sunak Confronted Over UK Vote on Gaza Cease-Fire at UN

UN general assembly votes overwhelmingly in favour of humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

In This Story: Estonia

Estonia, a country in Northern Europe, borders the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Including more than 1,500 islands, its diverse terrain spans rocky beaches, old-growth forest and many lakes. Formerly part of the Soviet Union, it’s dotted with castles, churches and hilltop fortresses. The capital, Tallinn, is known for its preserved Old Town, museums and the 314m-high Tallinn TV Tower, which has an observation deck.

2 Recent Items: Estonia

Ukraine shoots down £274m Russian spy plan | Ukraine: The Latest | Pod

Iran developing a new attack drone for Russia? | Ukraine war

In This Story: Los Angeles

Los Angeles is a sprawling Southern California city and the center of the nation’s film and television industry. Near its iconic Hollywood sign, studios such as Paramount Pictures, Universal and Warner Brothers offer behind-the-scenes tours. On Hollywood Boulevard, TCL Chinese Theatre displays celebrities’ hand- and footprints, the Walk of Fame honors thousands of luminaries and vendors sell maps to stars’ homes. 

2 Recent Items: Los Angeles

Brooklyn Nets @ Los Angeles Lakers | NBA on ESPN Live Scoreboard

Actor Alec Baldwin charged with manslaughter over film set shooting | BBC News

Leave a Comment

We don't require your email address, or your name, for anyone to leave a comment. If you do add an email address, you may be notified if there are replies to your comment - we won't use it for any other purpose. Please make respectful comments, which add value, and avoid personal attacks on others. Links are not allowed in comments - 99% of spam comments, attempt to post links. Please describe where people may find additional information - for example "visit the UN website" or "search Google for..." rather than posting a link. Comments failing to adhere to these guidelines will not be published.