Nashotah House is pleased to announce New York Polyphony has been nominated by Gramophone Classical Music Awards, U.K., among an elite group of 60 nominees. Geoffrey Williams, D.M.A., is founder and artistic director of New York Polyphony, and serves as Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of Chapel Music at Nashotah House.

“The opportunity to make music nine times a week in chapel is an immeasurable gift,” said Dr. Williams. “The challenges of designing worship and singing in the time of pandemic have provided unexpected grace at every turn and I am grateful for the support of the faculty, administration, and students.  While we look forward to our ‘regularly scheduled program’ in St Mary’s chapel, I hope always to have my eyes and ears open to the beauty of holiness.”

New York Polyphony was shortlisted for the prestigious Gramophone Record of the Year (Early Music category) for their recording Peñalosa - Lamentationes on the BIS Records label. The nomination places New York Polyphony, founded in 2006, among an elite group of talented musicians representing classical music. “This is our first nomination for a Gramophone award,” said Dr. Williams. “It is an honor to have been nominated, as these awards are based on artists’ merit and quality, rather than popularity.” The ensemble’s growing discography includes two GRAMMY-nominated releases and albums that have topped the "best of" lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. New York Polyphony was twice nominated for a GRAMMY award (2013, 2014), under consideration for this recording. 

The 2020 Gramophone Classical Music Awards, presented with Apple Music, E. Gutzwiller & Cie, Banquiers, and Help Musicians UK, will take place via a virtual ceremony on the evening of October 6, 2020, on their social media channels - time to be announced. For more about Gramophone and the 2020 nominees, please visit https://bit.ly/31SOMVf.

About New York Polyphony 

New York Polyphony comprises Geoffrey Williams, countertenor; Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor; Christopher Dylan Herbert, baritone; and Craig Phillips, bass. The ensemble’s growing discography includes two GRAMMY-nominated releases and albums that have topped the “best of” lists of The New Yorker, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. In 2019, the vocal quartet released Peñalosa - Lamentationes on BIS Records. The album features rarely heard works from late 15th-century and early 16th-century Spanish composers Francisco de Peñalosa, Pedro de Escobar, and Francisco Guerrero, including world premiere recordings of Peñalosa's Lamentations and movements of his Missa L'homme arme. The end of the fifteenth century in Spain witnessed the emergence of a number of composers of outstanding ability who set the stage for the extraordinary flowering of polyphony in the following century. These works do not make regular appearances in liturgical celebrations or concert programmes, partly due to the way modern choirs are structured without the countertenor voice. Apart from this, the idea of the Spanish musical renaissance has come to mean the works of composers such as Tomas Luís de Victoria, Francisco Guerrero, and Alonso Lobo, rather than their predecessors Francisco de Peñalosa and Pedro de Escobar.

New York Polyphony seeks to continue touring post-COVID. Past performances included participating in major concert series and festivals around the world. Noteworthy engagements include debut performances at London’s Wigmore Hall and The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, residencies at Dartmouth College and Stanford University, concerts under the aegis of the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht (Netherlands), and the European premiere of the Missa Charles Darwin—a newly commissioned secular Mass setting based on texts of Charles Darwin by composer Gregory Brown—at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. Elsewhere, New York Polyphony has performed as part of the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg; Rheingau Musik Festival, Thüringer Bachwochen (Germany); Abvlensis International Music Festival (Spain); Stiftskonzerte Oberösterreich (Austria); Festival de Música de Morelia (Mexico); and the Elora Festival (Canada), among others. They have been featured on Performance Today for American Public Media, Footprints to Paradise: A Medieval Christmas for Public Radio International, and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. In December 2011, New York Polyphony made its national television debut on The Martha Stewart Show.

Please click here for the press release from New York Polyphony. For questions or more information, please email chapter@nashotah.edu