Telarc’s Award Winners – History of Audio

Everything You Hear Is True: The Telarc Legacy (index)

One measure of Telarc’s impact on the world of recorded music is in the awards they received, listed here by year.¹

1981 (23^rd) Grammy Awards
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1983 (25^th) Grammy Awards
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1986 (28^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Album (Berlioz: Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80109)
- Best Choral Performance (Berlioz: Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80109)
- Best Vocal Solo Performance, Classical (John Aler, tenor / Berlioz: Requiem – 80109)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner, engineer / Berlioz: Requiem – 80109)
- Best Orchestral Recording (Fauré: Pelléas and Mélisande, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80084)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1988 (30^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Choral Performance (Hindemith: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80132)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner, engineer / Fauré: Requiem – 80135)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1988 Gramophone Magazine Awards
- Choral Recording of the Year (Verdi: Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80152)
1989 (31^st) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Album (Verdi: Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80152)
- Best Choral Performance (Verdi: Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80152)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner, engineer / Verdi: Requiem – 80152)
- Best Orchestral Recording – Rorem: String Symphony (not Telarc, but recorded by Telarc team)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1989 Grand Prix du Disque (American Jubilee, Cincinnati Pops / Kunzel – 80144)
1990 (32^nd) Grammy Awards
- Best Comedy Recording (PDQ Bach, 1712 Overture – 80210)
- Best Choral Performance (Britten: War Requiem, Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80157)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner, engineer / Britten: War Requiem – 80157)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
1991 (33^rd) Grammy Awards
- Best Comedy Recording (PDQ Bach, Oedipus Tex – 80239)
- Best Choral Performance (Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast / Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80181)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner, engineer / Rachmaninoff: Vespers – 80172)
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist (Oscar Peterson Trio, Live at the Blue Note – 83304)
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group (Oscar Peterson Trio, Live at the Blue Note – 83304)
1992 (34^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Comedy Album (PDQ Bach, WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio – 80295)
- Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group (Oscar Peterson Trio, Saturday Night at the Blue Note – 83306)
1993 (35^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Comedy Album (PDQ Bach, Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion – 80307)
1998 (40^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Chamber Music Performance (Corigliano: Quartet / Cleveland Quartet – 80415)
- Best Classical Composition (Corigliano: Quartet / Cleveland Quartet – 80415)
- Best Choral Performance (Adams: Harmonium / Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80365)
- Best Engineered Recording, Classical (Jack Renner & Michael Bishop, engineers / Copland: The Music of America – 80339)
1999 (41^st) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Album (Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard / Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80479)
- Best Choral Performance (Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard / Atlanta Symphony / Shaw – 80479)
- Best Engineered Classical Recording (Jack Renner, Engineer / Barber: Prayers of Kierkegaard – 80479)
2003 (45^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Album (Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80588)
- Best Choral Performance (Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80588)
- Best Engineered Classical Recording (Michael Bishop, Engineer / Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony – 80588)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
2004 (46^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Latin Jazz Album (Michel Camilo / Live at the Blue Note – 83574)
2004 Gramophone Magazine Label of the Year
2005 (47^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Jazz Instrumental Album (McCoy Tyner / Illuminations – 83559)
- Best Engineered Classical Recording (Jack Renner, engineer / Higdon: CityScape – 80620)
- Best Choral Performance (Berlioz: Requiem / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80627)
- Best Instrumental Solo Performance (David Russell / Aire Latino – 80612)
- Best Classical Crossover (Los Angeles Guitar Quartet / LAGQ’s Guitar Heroes – 80598)
2005 OutMusic Awards²
- Outstanding New Instrumental Recording (Higdon: CityScape / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80620)
2006 OutMusic Awards³
- Outstanding New Instrumental Recording (Del Tredici: Paul Revere’s Ride / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80638)
2006 (48^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Crossover Album (Turtle Island String Quartet / 4+Four – 80630)
2007 (49^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Engineered Classical Recording (Michael Bishop, engineer / Elgar: Enigma Variations – 80660)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Elaine Martone)
2008 (50^th) Grammy Awards
- Best Classical Crossover Album (Turtle Island String Quartet / Coltrane: A Love Supreme – 80684)
- Producer of the Year, Classical (Robert Woods)
2008 Diapason d’Or Outstanding Recording
- Goldberg Variations (Simone Dinnerstein – 80692)
2009 (51^st) Grammy Awards
- Best Surround Album (Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Cincinnati Symphony / Järvi – 80705)
2010 (52^nd) Grammy Awards
- Best Surround Album (Adams: Transmigration / Atlanta Symphony / Spano – 80673)

Library of Congress National Recording Registry
- Class of 2016: Rachmaninoff: Vespers, Robert Shaw Festival Singers – 80172
- Class of 2019: Frederick Fennell and the Cleveland Symphonic Winds – 80038

Following the dissolution of Telarc’s production department, there were more:

Michael Bishop: 2015 (57^th) Grammy Awards – Best Engineered Album, Classical
Erica Brenner: 2019 (61^st) Grammy Awards – Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
Elaine Martone: 2024 (66^th) Grammy Awards – Producer of the Year, Classical
Elaine Martone: 2025 (67^th) Grammy Awards – Producer of the Year, Classical

The great success of Telarc at the Grammys, especially with their Atlanta Symphony recordings, led to complaints in some quarters that these forces were gaming the system to their advantage.⁴ As a result, the Recording Academy modified the nomination process. Nomination Review Committees were introduced, beginning with the classical categories in 1989 and eventually being added to the process for all awards categories. Much ink was spilled about this process.⁵ Telarc’s continued success at the annual awards indicated that their earlier awards were justly earned. The Nomination Review Committees were eliminated in 2022.⁶

Last updated on February 13th, 2025 at 08:53 pm

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Note: Grammy Awards are awarded in February for recordings made from October to September in the previous season. Though that involves three calendar years, they are customarily referred to by the year in which the award is presented. ↩︎
Jason Victor Serinus, “Telarc’s Higdon SACD Wins Major Award,” Stereophile, June 20, 2005. ↩︎
Jason Victor Serinus, “Telarc Scores Big,” Stereophile, June 19, 2006. ↩︎
For coverage of this controversy, see James Oestreich, “Classical Grammys Sing the Blues,” New York Times, February 21, 1993, and “Controversy Again Casts Cloud Over Grammy Awards Program,” Ocala Star-Banner, February 25, 1986 (pdf). Googling “Grammy Controversy” gets millions of hits, so it’s long been a contentious process. ↩︎
Here’s some: Samantha Hissong and Amy X. Wang, “Inside the ‘Secret Committees’ That Quietly Run the Grammy Awards,” Billboard, February 13, 2020. ↩︎
Paul Grein, “Recording Academy Votes to End Grammy Nomination Review Committees,” Billboard, April 30, 2021. ↩︎