Minnesota Orchestra, SPCO won't attend Grammys despite nominations

Minnesota Orchestra president Kevin Smith, left, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra artistic director and principal violin Kyu-Young Kim explained why they're missing Sunday's Grammy Awards.

Minnesota Orchestra has more than its 2018 Grammy nomination in common with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Should they win, neither organization will have anyone to lift the golden gramophone and haul it back to Minnesota. That's because neither orchestra is sending a representative to Sunday's Grammy Awards in New York City.

"It would be exciting to be part of the day's events," said Minnesota Orchestra president Kevin Smith. "But Osmo and the orchestra are performing in Chicago that day."

The SPCO, meanwhile, is performing Sunday in Mahtomedi. Couldn't they just send somebody from management to the ceremony?

"The Grammys require that the representative be a musician who participated in the recording," explained SPCO artistic director and principal violin Kyu-Young Kim. "We are performing that weekend, so we are unable to send a musician who participated in the recording.

"We will send our regrets," he added.

The orchestras won't be competing, though, because they're nominated in completely different categories: Minnesota Orchestra for "Best Orchestral Performance" for its recent recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, SPCO for "Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance" for "Death and the Maiden," created with artistic partner Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

And if they win?

"They mail the Grammy Awards to you after the ceremony," said Smith. "At least that is how it worked when the Minnesota Orchestra won in 2014."

The Grammys for classical music will be awarded during Sunday afternoon's Premiere Ceremony, available via livestream at Grammy.com (2-5 p.m. Sun.). Classical music awards are not part of the telecast (6:30 p.m., WCCO Ch. 4).