Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch GRAMMY Awards nominees! We're celebrating with 25% off all of this year's nominated albums in the Nonesuch Store using code GRAMMY25 at checkout: Thomas Adès's Dante, performed by LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel (Best Orchestral Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition, Producer of the Year, Classical); Darcy James Argue's Secret Society's Dynamic Maximum Tension (Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album); Julia Bullock's Walking in the Dark (Best Classical Solo Vocal Album); Rhiannon Giddens's You're the One (Best Americana Album, Best American Roots Performance); Cécile McLorin Salvant's Mélusine (Best Jazz Vocal Album; Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals); Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway's City of Gold (Best Bluegrass Album); andThe Blue Hour (Best Engineered Album, Classical).

Congratulations to all of the Nonesuch nominees for the 66th Grammy Awards: the premiere recording of Thomas Adès's Dante, performed by LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition, and the album's producer, Dmitriy Lipay, for Producer of the Year, Classical; Darcy James Argue's Secret Society for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Dynamic Maximum Tension; Julia Bullock for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Walking in the Dark; Rhiannon Giddens for Best Americana Album for You're the One and Best American Roots Performance for the album track "You Louisiana Man"; Cécile McLorin Salvant for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Mélusine and Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals for the album track "Fenestra," arranged by Godwin Louis; Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway for Best Bluegrass Album for City of Gold; and The Blue Hour for Best Engineered Album, Classical.

"The Blue Hour, a cycle of songs by Caroline Shaw, Angelica Negrón, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Rachel Grimes and Shara Nova, who sings and narrates its 40 sections, is unforgettable," writes NPR Classical’s Tom Huizenga in naming the album to his list of the year’s ten best. The album has also made NPR Music's list of The 50 Best Albums of 2022 and year's best lists from the Boston Globe, New Sounds, Sequenza 21, and I Care If You Listen, which calls it "stunning."

Caroline Shaw’s “Firmament,” a track from The Blue Hour—a song cycle collaboration among Shaw, Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, and Sarah Kirkland Snider setting excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth performed by chamber orchestra A Far Cry and Nova—is the subject of the latest episode of Resounding Verse, a podcast on poetry and song hosted by Stephen Rodgers. You can hear it here.

The Blue Hour, a song cycle collaboration among composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, is out now on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records. The piece was commissioned and performed by the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, who are joined by singer Shara Nova. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the liminal space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. You can take a quick look inside the album here.

"Finally bringing this recording to your ears, after so many years ... is a tremendous exhale and a collective accomplishment made possible by many small and many giant acts of generosity," Shara Nova writes in a new essay about the creation of The Blue Hour, a song cycle collaboration among composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Nova, who performs the piece with the commissioning chamber orchestra A Far Cry on the album out this Friday.

With one month till the October 14 release of The Blue Hour, a song cycle written collaboratively by the female composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, comes an album trailer featuring footage from the recording sessions with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry and vocal soloist Nova, narrated by the composers. You can watch it here. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.

The Blue Hour, a song cycle born of a collaboration among five composers—Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider—will be released October 14 on New Amsterdam / Nonesuch Records. The piece was commissioned and performed by the chamber orchestra A Far Cry, who are joined by singer Shara Nova. Set to excerpts from Carolyn Forché’s epic poem On Earth, the music follows one woman’s journey through the liminal space between life and death via thousands of hallucinatory and non-linear images. Exploring memories of childhood, war, love, and loss, The Blue Hour amplifies the beauty, pain, and fragility of human life from a collective female perspective.