Irish mastering engineer wins Grammy for Kendrick’s GNX song ‘Luther’ with SZA.
LA-based Kerry mastering engineer Ruairí O’Flaherty provided the mastering engineering on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Luther’ and his GNX album which won Record Of The Year at the awards last night.
The album, Kendrick and the team that worked on the record including O’Flaherty was nominated four times, making O’Flaherty‘s win his first in seven nominations.
Record of the Year
Bad Bunny: “DTMF”
Billie Eilish: “Wildflower”
Chappell Roan: “The Subway”
Doechii: “Anxiety”
WINNER: Kendrick Lamar & SZA: “Luther”
Lady Gaga: “Abracadabra”
Rosé & Bruno Mars: “Apt.”
Sabrina Carpenter: “Manchild”
O’Flaherty also mastered Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend album which were was nominated.
Irish composer and Crash Ensemble founder wins a Grammy
Alarm Will Sound won a Grammy for their album based on Irish contemporary composer Donnacha Dennehy’s chamber work Land of Winter last night. The American 20-member chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, who are perhaps best known in this circle for their Aphex Twin covers album, won the Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance at last night’s Grammy Awards in LA.
Donnacha Dennehy: Land of Winter was the winning album as performed by Alarm Will Sound and conducted by Alan Pierson. The album was also nominated in Best Contemporary Classical Composition but didn’t take home that prize.
Land of Winter explores the subtleties of Ireland’s seasons via twelve connected sections representing the months of the year. It was released on Nonesuch last year.
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
WINNER: Alan Pierson & Alarm Will Sound: “Donnacha Dennehy: Land of Winter”
Lili Haydn & Paul Cantelon: “Lullabies for the Brokenhearted”
Mak Grgić & Mateusz Kowalski: “Slavic Sessions”
Neave Trio: “La mer: French Piano Trios”
Third Coast Percussion: “Standard Stoppages”
“It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons,” Dennehy says, “from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece.”
Donnacha Dennehy’s music has been premiered and commissioned by groups and soloists including Augustin Hadelich, Contact, Crash Ensemble, Dawn Upshaw, Kronos Quartet, Icebreaker, Nadia Sirota, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Oregon Symphony, Sō Percussion (Carnegie/Cork Opera House co-commission), St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Third Coast Percussion. Collaborations include pieces with the writers Colm Tóibín (The Dark Places), the director Tom Creed (The Hunger, stage version), and Enda Walsh (a trilogy of operas).
Land of Winter is the third album of Dennehy’s music on Nonesuch Records, including Grá agus Bás in 2011 and The Hunger, also featuring Alarm Will Sound, in 2019.
Dehenny works in the music department at Princeton University.
Also nominated
Also nominated from Ireland were Emma O’Halloran for the opera Trade / Mary Motorhead, mezzo-soprano Naomi Louisa O’Connell for two operas.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
