Grammy a surprise for Miller
Albany Symphony viola concerto was only contemporary nominee
David Alan Miller didn’t think he would win a Grammy. The music director of the Albany Symphony was out food shopping and was walking back to his parked car when his daughter yelled to him from it that the symphony had won the Grammy in the best classical instrumental solo category. The piece that won was a viola concerto composed by Christopher Theofanidis, and performed by violist Richard O’neill.
“I'm thrilled. And I was quite stunned by it because I had really emotionally prepared myself not to win for a number of reasons,” said Miller, who had been nominated for a Grammy six times before, winning only once before this. One of the reasons for not expecting to win was being up against some of the most celebrated orchestras in the world, including the Boston Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“And so, when we were the only contemporary work and with a contemporary viola concerto, I thought the odds of our winning were minuscule,” he said.
For violist O’neill, the whole experience was surreal as he accepted the award via Zoom from his practice room in Colorado. The Julliard School graduate has played in orchestras across the United States and South Korea.
“The Albany Symphony is a mighty symphony, and I heard about their wins, and I was very happy. But honestly, when I took the recording and this project, I was just thrilled with Christopher Theofanidis’ piece,” he said. “And what I think that I took away most from Albany besides probably the greatest concert hall, I think, in the United States — the Troy Savings Bank — was the audience.”
O’neill recalls driving to the Capital Region in the middle of winter in 2018 to perform for a fully packed theatre who then gave him a standing ovation after his performance. It amazed the violist that the audience appreciated modern music so much, especially since the other piece being performed that night was Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
“I just felt it was a really powerful moment for me,” he said. Miller credits the Capital Region audience with good taste and a very discerning ear. “We programmed it really for the Albany Capital Region public. And I did know that when I first heard the piece, that it was something that our audience would really appreciate and would connect with, because it is such a heartfelt, beautiful piece.”
The piece that was composed by Theofanidis was inspired by Navajo poetry as well as the events of 9/11. Theofanidis, who was teaching at Julliard, was in the midst composing it when the news of the terrorist attacks broke. It upset him so much that he had to stop working on it for a while.
“I responded, eventually, to the situation by reconfiguring the piece and making the inner core of the piece kind of responding to that moment out of time, in a way, and trying to come to some kind of equilibrium again,” he said.
O’neill also felt the attacks personally as he had just moved to New York City as a student at Julliard in September of 2001.
“It stopped my world and Chris (Theofanidis) was talking about this and it brought it back, all that pain ... and all the suffering of all those poor people that were just trying to live their daily lives. … So when Chris was telling me these things I was like, this piece is really intense; it's going to be a journey.”