GRAMMYS 2015: THREE “Made in France” WINNERS!

This year, three artists “made in France” earned a Grammy award. The winners are:

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT

For his score on the Wes Anderson’s movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, the French composer won the Grammy in the ‘Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media’ category. He earned the award in front of very talented composers such as Thomas Newman or Christopher Beck. Music has always been a fundamental part of movie making, and sometimes these relationships between musicians and directors become so complementary that they happen to be indissociable. Among them are Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrman’s or Tim Burton and Danny Elfman’s.

In this regard the relationship between Wes Anderson and Alexandre Desplat is a continuation of this legacy: each score seems to perfectly embody the essence of the movie it has been created for (‘The Heroic Weather Conditions Of The Universe’ for Moonrise Kingdom, ‘Mr. Mustafa’ for The Grand Budapest Hotel) and succeeds in giving Wes Anderson’s motion picture this particular atmosphere “that can’t be compared to any other” according to Alexandre Desplat.

Mr. Mustafa – The Grand Budapest Hotel’s soundtrack

The composer in now familiar with the academy award, as he won in 2011 a Grammy for the superb soundtrack of Best Motion Picture Oscar winner The King’s Speech. Desplat is now waiting for the announcement of the results of the upcoming Oscar Ceremony, for which he has been nominated twice in the musical score category, for his sheet music on The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

THE SACRED SPIRIT OF RUSSIA

The Austin vocal group Conspirare, led by Craig Hella Johnson, won the “Best Choral Performance” grammy for his recital.

The choral ensemble has recorded Christmas Liturgy’s masterpieces (by Gretchaninov, Kastalsky and, Rachmaninov) in a Russian church.

The album has been produced by the French independent label Harmonia Mundi, devoted to classical and world music.

DOUCE FRANCE

By singing a compendium of some of the past two centuries songs composed by a wide range of French artists (from Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy to Léo Ferré and Barbara), Anne Sofie Von Otter’s album sounds like a journey into the rich history of French music. With this record, she won the Grammy Award of ‘Best Classical Solo Vocal Album’ category. The Album has been produced by the Paris based label Naïve, an independent label specializing in electro and pop music, but also in jazz and classical.