ABC MUSIC scores 15 ARIA Award nominations in the Fine Arts & Artisan categories

ABC Music has picked up 15 nominations across five categories in the Fine Arts and Artisan Awards for 2012, as announced by ARIA today.

Continuing its strong performance in recent years, ABC Music’s nominations include an unprecedented five out of five for Best Classical Album, three for Best Jazz Album, three for Best World Music Album, two for Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album and two for Producer of the Year.

Since the inception of the ARIAs 25 years ago, ABC Classics has secured 23 ARIA Awards for Best Classical Album. This year’s award will be the 19th consecutive ARIA Award won by the label.

ABC Music’s Robert Patterson said the number and diversity of the nominations were a strong indicator of the label’s success across the important genres of Classical, Jazz, World and Soundtrack.

“Our traditional categories have performed particularly strongly this year,” he said, “but we’re also thrilled at the breadth of musical genres being represented by our nominees in this initial announcement of nominations for the Fine Arts and Artisan Awards. Across the full spectrum from Classical to Best Original Soundtrack, ABC Music is really making its presence felt. It is exceptionally pleasing to have performed so well in a year when eligible releases from other local and international labels were at an all-time high.”

It is also a testament to the quality of ABC Music’s recordings that this year the label has two nominations in the Producer of the Year category. Veteran producer and music director Chong Lim’s nomination for Sarah McKenzie’s new album is an important endorsement of his work for the label in recent years. A particular highlight is Virginia Read’s nomination in this category. It is unusual to see a classical producer nominated, and this first nomination for Virginia comes after the nomination of 17 of her productions over the last decade, with six of her recordings having won Classical Album of the Year.

Virginia Read is one of Australia’s foremost classical music producers and engineers. She first started working for ABC Classics in 2000, where she has established herself as the label’s Recordings Manager, overseeing the production of all releases as well as single-handedly creating many of the label’s major albums.

Her career began with a composition degree at the Canberra School of Music, after which she moved to Montreal in Canada where she studied music recording at the prestigious McGill University. After graduating with a Tonmeister degree she was offered a position at the legendary Classic Sound Inc. in New York, where she was involved with many of the industry’s award winning engineers, producers and artists including Evgeny Kissin, Sarah Chang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Billy Joel. Some of her more bizarre jobs included recording a concert of 200 marimbas, and mixing the outdoor PA for an Itzhak Perlman concert in front of an audience of more than 15,000.

ABC Music’s Fine Arts and Artisan Nominees are:

FINE ARTS NOMINEES:

BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM

José Carbó + Slava & Leonard Grigoryan – My Latin Heart

Orchestra of the Antipodes – Bach: Brandenburg Concertos

Sally Whitwell – The Good, The Bad and The Awkward

Sydney Symphony, Vladimir Ashkenazy – Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

William Barton– Kalkadungu

BEST JAZZ ALBUM

Grace Knight – Keep Cool Fool

Sarah McKenzie – Close Your Eyes

Steven Rossitto – Night & Day

BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM

Joseph Tawadros and the Australian Chamber Orchestra – Concerto of the Greater Sea

Sarah Calderwood – As Night Falls

Warren H Williams & The Warumungu Songmen – Winanjjara: The Song Peoples Sessions

BEST ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK/ CAST/ SHOW ALBUM

Jane Rutter – An Australian In Paris

triple j – Straight To You – triple j’s Tribute To Nick Cave

ARTISAN AWARD NOMINEES:

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

Chong Lim – Sarah McKenzie, Close Your Eyes

Virginia Read – Sally Whitwell, The Good, The Bad and The Awkward

The Awards will be announced in Sydney on Wednesday October 3 at the Art Gallery of NSW where the nominees for the remaining genre awards will be also announced.

Congratulations to all those nominated in the Fine Arts & Artisan Awards categories for the 2012 ARIA Awards.