2025 Grammy nominations, strings edition

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Tis already the season of the Grammy Awards. Today the Recording Academy of the United States announced its nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards. The winners will be announced on Sunday, 2 February 2025, during the 67th Grammy Awards ceremony, which will take place live at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

While much of the attention is focused on Beyoncé and her 11 nominations this round (she already boasts 32 wins and now holds the record as the most-nominated artist in Grammy history), 10 of the total of 94 categories shine the light on classical music.

String players have an especially healthy presence this year. Here’s a quick recap of string players or string-related releases up for the coveted award:

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

• Violinist Curtis Stewart for Perry: Concerto For Violin & Orchestra; James Blachly, conductor (Experiential Orchestra)
• Cellist Seth Parker Woods for Eastman: The Holy Presence Of Joan D’Arc, Christopher Rountree, conductor (Wild Up) (Bandcamp)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

• Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax for Beethoven For Three (Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97, ’Archduke’) (Sony Classical)
• JACK Quartet for Waves & Particles  by John Luther Adams (Bandcamp)
• Miró Quartet for Home (music by Kevin Puts, Caroline Shaw, George Walker, Samuel Barber and Harold Arlen) (Pentatone)

 Best Classical Compendium

• violinist Curtis Stewart for American Counterpoints; James Blachly, conductor; Blanton Alspaugh, producer (Bright Shiny Things)

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

• Seven For Solo Cello – Andrea Casarrubios, composer and cellist (Odradek) 

Playing

In The Best of Technique you’ll discover the top playing tips of the world’s leading string players and teachers. It’s packed full of exercises for students, plus examples from the standard repertoire to show you how to integrate the technique into your playing.

Teaching

The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.

Calendars

The Canada Council of the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank is 40 years old in 2025. This year’s calendar celebrates some its treasures, including four instruments by Antonio Stradivari and priceless works by Montagnana, Gagliano, Pressenda and David Tecchler.