Holy Cross Professor Nominated for Two Grammy Awards

WORCESTER, Mass. – Internationally acclaimed composer Osvaldo Golijov, associate professor of music at the College of the Holy Cross, has been nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Golijov received nominations in the category of "Best Chamber Music Performance," for "Yiddishbuk" and in the category of "Best Classical Contemporary Composition" for "Yiddishbuk Inscriptions for String Quartet." Golijov's arranging work also helped the Kronos Quartet earn a nomination this year for its Nonesuch CD ``Nuevo'' in the category of "Best Classical Crossover."

An Argentine-born Jew, Golijov earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Golijov received Tanglewood's Fromm Commission, resulting in "Yiddishbuk," which was premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet during Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music in July 1992. "Yiddishbuk" was released on CD by EMI last June.

In September 2000, the premiere of Golijov's "La Pasión Según San Marcos" (The Passion According to St. Mark) in Stuttgart, Germany earned Golijov fantastic critical acclaim. Commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the European Music Festival to commemorate the 250th anniversary of J. S. Bach's death, "La Pasión" was hailed by The Los Angeles Times as "the first indisputably great composition of the 21st century."

In addition to his role at Holy Cross, Golijov is also on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center; and, last summer, was composer-in-residence for Marlboro Music, Ravinia, and the Cape and Islands Festivals.