L.A. Phil and Wild Up earn 2023 Grammy nominations on a bright day for California classical

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic have earned a Grammy Award nod for best orchestral performance alongside another L.A. nominee, conductor Christopher Rountree’s experimental new music chamber orchestra, Wild Up.

The two groups are up against conductor Doug Perkins and the Musicians of the University of Michigan Department of Chamber Music and the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble; John Williams and the Berliner Philharmoniker; and Michael Repper and the New York Youth Symphony.

Dudamel and the L.A. Phil were recognized for “Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7-9.” Dudamel has been conducting work by the 19th century Czech composer for years. In February 2020, Times classical music critic Mark Swed described a slate of such performances as a “revelation.”

Should Dudamel win at the 65th Grammy Awards in February, he will score his fifth win in as many nominations. He has three wins in the last three years. At the 64th annual awards he won best choral performance for “Mahler: Symphony No. 8, ‘Symphony of a Thousand.’” The year before he nabbed the win for best orchestral performance for “Ives: Complete Symphonies.” He won in the same category at the 62nd Grammys Awards for “Norman: Sustain.” His first win was during the 54th Grammy Awards for best orchestral performance for “Brahms: Symphony No. 4.”

Rountree and Wild Up are nominated for “Eastman: Stay on It.” The conductor and his orchestra have one previous nomination in the best chamber music/small ensemble performance category for “Cerrone: The Pieces That Fall to Earth.”