The 2020 Grammy Award ceremony is scheduled to take place on Jan. 26, and not only will it be a time to salute your favorite artists of the year, but it will also be an opportunity to celebrate a music professor at your very own university.
Nadia Shpachenko’s newest album, titled “The Poetry of Places,” recorded at Skywalker Sound, located in Nicasio in Marin County, has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. The nominations fall under Best Classical Compendium for the album as a whole, and Producer of the Year Classical for producers Victor and Marina Ledin.
The album was released on March 1, 2019. This day marked the end of a 4-year-long project that Shpachenko and many others poured their hearts and souls into.
(Courtesy of Nadia Schpachenko)
The theme of the album was the connection between architecture and music. Essentially, each composer chosen to contribute to this album had been inspired by a building at one point in his or her life. This inspiration was rooted from various concepts. For some, it was the history behind the building, while for others it was what lay inside of the building and how it functioned in other people’s lives.
Featured in this album are eight compositions by award-winning composers Andrew Norman, Hannah Lash, Harold Meltzer, Amy Beth Kirsten, Lewis Spratlan, James Matheson, Nina C. Young and Jack Van Zandt.
According to a press release by Cal Poly Pomona Communications Specialist Teresa Kelly, the buildings these artists were inspired by were as follows: “American Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), Aaron Copland’s House (Cortlandt, New York), House on Island (Pine Plains, New York), Frank Genry’s IAC Building (Manhattan, New York), Frank Gehry’s House (Santa Monica), Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Buildings (Dhaka, Bangladesh), Lowell House at Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and Newgrange Ancient Temple (Boyne Valley, Ireland).”
The goal of the album was to not only follow the overall theme, but to connect different styles and utilize different instrument combinations.
Shpachenko speaks with an abundance of passion and enthusiasm about her work. She hopes that through her work, people feel inspired to listen to contemporary music, and get excited about the connection between the different artistic endeavors. At the end of the day, she wishes it would ignite people to take from it and create something of their own.
What was once just an idea inspired by the architecture of a building and a group of people with a similar vision became a piece of art that is now getting its recognition.
“I feel very confident about my work; I am extremely proud. I feel like each detail about this project was crafted with such love and precision and artistry,” Shpachenko said.
For now, Shpachenko revealed that she is working on a new project and it is going to be exciting and something that has never been done before in classical music.
For more information on the artists’ inspiration, check out the trailer for “The Poetry of Places” on Youtube: https://youtu.be/IXCyzyV0Ewc, and for more on Shpachenko, check out her website: http://nadiashpachenko.com.
