Houston producer, Chamber Choir make Grammy noise alongside Beyoncé, Lizzo
Singer, rapper and flutist Lizzo, who grew up in Houston, was the big Grammy story on Wednesday, earning eight nominations including all the big ones: album of the year, record of the year and song of the year, as well as best new artist. Houston native Beyoncé also was well represented despite not having a proper new album. Her “The Lion King: The Gift” was nominated for best pop vocal album, and she also earned nominations for best pop solo performance, best song written for visual media and best music film.
But the Grammys are distributed in 84 categories that cover all manner of music styles. The awards also recognize various contributors, from the performers of a song to the writers, producers, engineers and even the artists who create the accompanying visual material.
Producer of the year is category No. 70, so it’s not one that makes a lot of headlines nor one that gets announced early. But when the category was announced Wedesday, Houston native John Hill was among the nominees.
Each producer-of-the-year nominee has a few recordings associated with his name. In Hill’s case, his nomination was based on recordings he made with Young the Giant, Khalid, Carly
Rae Jepsen, Cage the Elephant and Imagine Dragons.
The nomination is Hill’s second for producer of the year; he also was nominated in 2015.
Hill is a next-gen musician: His father, Graham Hill, was a singersongwriter-bassist in the Houstonbased ’60s garage-rock band the Interns. Hill’s first big break came years ago working with the singersongwriter-producer Santigold. That collaboration threw the doors open for future work, as Hill began recording with Jay-Z, Shakira, Kings of Leon, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Pink and numerous others.
The other producers in his category include Jack Antonoff (who worked with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey), the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach (Dee White, Yola, Leo Bud Welch), Finneas (Billie Eilish) and Ricky Reed (Lizzo, SZA, Maren Morris).
Scroll farther down the Grammy list to category No. 77. A Houston institution was also recognized for its work: The Houston Chamber Choir was nominated for best choral performance. The organization next year celebrates a quarter-century of “increasing the awareness, appreciation and esteem of choral music and musicians through performance, outreach and education.”
The choir and its artistic director and conductor Robert Simpson were nominated for “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,” a performance of music by 20th-century French composer Maurice Duruflé.
The recording was also part of a second Grammy nomination: Blanton Alspaugh was nominated for producer of the year, classical, for his work on eight recordings including “Duruflé:.”
Simpson started the Houston Chamber Choir in 1995. The group comprises 20 singers, described on the organization’s website as having “studied at the top music schools and conservatories in the United States including Julliard, New England Conservatory, University of Houston, and University of Texas.”
The choir commissions, performs and records the work of contemporary Texas composers while also looking deeper into choral-music history for works. “Ravishingly Russian” was an album of 19th- and 20th-century Russian secular choral music. The group also preformed a world permiere of a piece by Giovanna Paolo Colonna, a 17th-century Italian composer.
The Houston Chamber Choir recorded Duruflé’s complete choral works two years ago at the Edythe Bates Old Recital Hall at Rice University with organist Ken Cowan. It was released in April. The eligibility for 2020 Grammys ran from Oct. 1, 2018, to Aug. 31, 2019.
The classical-producer-of-theyear Grammy category included Blanton Alspaugh, who had a hand in two local recordings. He worked on “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works” for the Houston Chamber Choir and “Visions Take Flight,” a recording by ROCO, formerly the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra.
Nominees for classical Grammy Awards like the best choral performance come from around the world. But Houston institutions have won before, as recently as 2018, when the Houston Symphony’s performance of Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck” won best opera recording for the album “Berg: Wozzeck.”