Gloria Cheng, winner of the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance award for Piano Music of Salonen, Stucky and Lutoslawski, poses in the press room during the 51st Annual Grammy Awards held on February 8 in Los Angeles, California (GETTY/Beijing Review)

Chinese-American Gloria Cheng took home the award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance for her album Piano Music of Salonen, Stucky and Lutoslawski at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.

The Best Engineered Album (Classical) award went to Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago, whose contributors include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and internationally renowned pipa virtuoso Wu Man.

Grammy and Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun, who won his first Grammy in 2002 for his score for the Oscar-winning movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, received a nomination for Best Opera Recording with The First Emperor. The innovative musician, who has been dedicated to introducing Chinese classical music to the world, said he was surprised by the Grammy nomination for his groundbreaking attempt to fuse Peking opera and Western opera.

Xiao Qingyang, Taiwan's internationally renowned graphic designer, received his third Grammy nomination for Best Album Cover Design. Xiao gained two previous nominations in the same category in 2005 and 2007.

Two other Chinese musicians were nominated for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance, including Li Wei, who plays the traditional Chinese string instrument guzheng, and pipa instrumentalist Wu Man, who performed at the White House at the invitation of former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Chinese artists had received their largest number of Grammy nominations in 2002 with three musicians, including Tan Dun, who were nominated for different classical categories, Chinese conductor Tang Muhai and cellist Wang Jian.

Song Zuying, one of China's most acclaimed folk singers, received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2007. Song was nominated for her album Bainian Liusheng, a reinterpretation of the best Chinese film music from 1905 to 2005. Song was the first Chinese folk musician to receive a nomination for the world-famous awards.

Chinese talented and world-renowned pianist Lang Lang received a nomination for Best Musical Performance in 2008.

As a globally influential and authoritative organization that produces the Grammys, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) recognizes musical achievement in a wide variety of genres, but the awards that receive the most attention are in pop music, a large field where few Chinese artists have established a presence. They've touched the outskirts of the Grammys, but not the core.

"Though Chinese artists haven't made it into the mainstream of the Grammys, we still have to thank the award for shining a spotlight on music that we tend to overlook and pay little attention. The music that could be the essence of Chinese music," Chinese music critic Pu Jiuyue told Beijing Review.

Addressing Chinese artists hoping for Grammy nominations, NARAS President Neil Portnow said that, aside from the obvious language barrier, Grammy rules state that an album has to be on sale in record stores in the United States in order to qualify for nomination, which leaves little chance for Chinese musicians.

However, the Internet has made Chinese music more accessible to Westerners, Portnow said during an interview with Chinese media in August 2008, when he came to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. Online media services such as iTunes make it much easier for Chinese musicians to sell their music to an American audience, which is "a big change that Chinese musicians and music companies should pay attention to," he said.

Portnow also reminded Chinese musicians of the need to find a balance between learning techniques from foreign peers and drawing inspiration from their own traditions.

Gloria Cheng

Pianist Gloria Cheng is widely recognized as a colorful and communicative interpreter of contemporary music, garnering universal acclaim for her unassuming virtuosity and eloquence. Cheng's dedication to contemporary music has brought her into close collaborations with many of the leading composers of our time: Thomas Adès, Henry Brant, Earle Brown, Elliott Carter, Witold Lutoslawski, Steve Rich and Steven Stucky, among others.

As the 1992 winner of the League of Composers/ISCM performer competition, Cheng was sponsored in a highly acclaimed solo debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

Prior to post-graduate studies in Paris and Barcelona, Cheng earned her B.A. in Economics from Stanford University, and graduate degrees in Music from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California. Her primary teachers were Isabelle Sant'Ambrogio, Aube Tzerko, and John Perry. She is on the faculty at UCLA.

(Beijing Review February 26, 2009)