The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, producer Dmitriy Lipay and composer Gabriela Ortiz awarded the GRAMMY^® for Best Classical Compendium

Los Angeles Master Chorale wins GRAMMY^® for Best Choral Performance

Gabriela Ortiz awarded the GRAMMY^® for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Dzonot - becoming the only composer to win this category in consecutive years

These awards follow three GRAMMY^® wins for Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina in 2025

Los Angeles, CA (Sunday February 1, 2026) – Tonight, The Recording Academy announced the winners of the 68th GRAMMY^® Awards. Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga was recognized in three categories - Best Choral Performance, Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Compendium - celebrating the recording’s visionary blend of orchestral and choral forces that bring Ortiz’s powerful score to life. The album was produced and engineered by Dmitriy Lipay and Alexander Lipay. Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Master Chorale were recognized in the Best Choral Performance category for their impassioned performance of Yanga from the album of the same name. Gabriela Ortiz’s Dzonot was recognized in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category, becoming the only composer to win the category in consecutive years. The cello concerto features soloist Alisa Weilerstein for whom the work was written.

These GRAMMY^® wins continue a series of distinguished achievements for Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil’s recordings with the Apple-owned Platoon label. Yanga is the second portrait album devoted to Ortiz’s music and follows the triple-GRAMMY^® and Latin GRAMMY^® Award-winning Revolución diamantina.

Gabriela Ortiz writes some of the most intense and colorful music of our time - often engaging deeply with issues of social justice, gender, and the environment. Her music unites disparate worlds, and lives by a compelling rhythmic drive and street-born authenticity. 

Commissioned by the LA Phil and recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Yanga weaves complex rhythms, traditional instruments, and choral textures into a vivid musical meditation on resistance, freedom, and cultural identity. Performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the album also showcases Ortiz’s evocative cello concerto Dzonot, in which Alisa Weilerstein’s luminous cello becomes a human voice moving through sonic landscapes of water, depth, and time, reflecting on both the beauty and the vulnerability of this environment. This evocative new work was inspired by the cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula - underground river systems with immense historical, spiritual, and ecological significance.

Yanga has received praise from critics around the world: The Times of London included the album in the “Seven Best Classical Albums of 2025,” saying: “Everything on this album testifies to Ortiz’s artistry and strength of purpose, the LA Phil’s luster and Dudamel’s skill in shaping the music’s exotic tapestries.” Gramophone stated that the album “reminds us of music’s unique power to honor history while inspiring hope for the future.”

Gustavo Dudamel said: “I’m deeply proud to have this recording be recognized with a GRAMMY^® Award. Yanga powerfully symbolizes the strength and resilience of those who fight for freedom, and offers a reminder of the enduring struggle against oppression that continues to this day. This is music that resonates with the rhythms of culture, nature, and humanity.”

Gabriela Ortiz said: “My music is rooted in the belief that sound connects us to our origins, and music becomes a way of speaking about who we are, and what affects us as human beings. Inspired by the historical figure of Yanga, the work explores the essence of freedom - not only as a historical achievement, but as a living and urgent concept. Yanga becomes a symbol of resistance, dignity, and collective memory - one whose meaning continues to resonate in our present time. I am deeply grateful to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel and Alisa Weilerstein for their trust and sustained support of my work. Their commitment has made it possible for me to develop artistic projects that have borne meaningful results and have been a fundamental learning process in my artistic life. I see music as a form of testimony: a way to speak about freedom, memory, and our responsibility toward the world we inhabit. From art and sound, I can address histories that still shape us, and realities that urgently demand our attention.”

Grant Gershon, Artistic Director of Los Angeles Master Chorale said: “We are so grateful to have been a part of this brilliant work by Gabriela Ortiz. The extraordinary 16^th-century African liberator Gaspar Yanga lives on through Gaby’s vivid music. The LA Master Chorale, alongside the LA Phil, Tambuco, and of course Gustavo Dudamel, knocked it out of the park with this recording. We're very proud to have been a part of it!”

Kim Noltemy, President & Chief Executive Officer at the LA Phil, said: “We are thrilled to once again receive GRAMMY^® recognition with the incomparable Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga, a work of extraordinary imagination and purpose, and we are deeply proud to see it honored alongside our collaborators at the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Platoon, and under the visionary leadership of Gustavo Dudamel. These awards underscore the profound impact that commissioning new music can have on culture and the future of this art form.”

Katie Ferguson, Platoon’s Head of Classical, added: “Yanga represents not only Gabriela Ortiz’s extraordinary artistic voice but also the trailblazing creative spirit of Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil. We are truly honored to see these artists and their work recognized, these GRAMMY^® wins acknowledge not only artistic excellence, but also the enduring power of music to tell meaningful stories and connect cultures.”

About Platoon

The multi-award and GRAMMY^® winning label Platoon was acquired by Apple in 2018. The boutique artist-services company identifies groundbreaking talent from around the world, while providing invaluable and innovative tools and services to build their careers and reach new fans. Platoon landed its first success shortly after its inception when it signed the then-unknown Billie Eilish, laying the groundwork for her ascent to global stardom, alongside other household names such as Mr Eazi and Victoria Monét. Current signings include Saint Harison, Lenny Tavárez, RZA, Khaid, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dalia Stasevska, and more.

About the LA Phil

Under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil offers live performances, media initiatives and learning programs that inspire and strengthen communities in Los Angeles and beyond. The Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra is the foundation of the LA Phil’s offerings, which also include a multi-genre, multidisciplinary presenting program and youth development programs such as YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles). Performances are offered on three historic stages — Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and The Ford — as well as through a variety of media platforms. In all its endeavors, the LA Phil seeks to enrich the lives of individuals and communities through musical, artistic and learning experiences that resonate in our world today. 

About Gustavo Dudamel

Gustavo Dudamel is committed to creating a better world through music. His unwavering belief in the power of art to inspire and transform lives has fuelled his unifying presence on and off the podium, his commitment to education and access for underserved communities around the world, and his mission to expand the impact of classical music to new and ever-larger audiences. His rise, from humble beginnings as a child in Venezuela to an unparalleled career of artistic and social achievements, offers living proof that culture can bring meaning to the life of an individual and greater harmony to the world at large. He currently serves as the Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, and in 2026, he becomes the Music & Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic, continuing a legacy that includes Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein. Last year, Dudamel celebrated the 50th anniversary of El Sistema, honoring the global impact of José Antonio Abreu’s visionary education program across five generations, and acknowledging the vital importance of arts education.

About Gabriela Ortiz

Composer Gabriela Ortiz creates music that seamlessly blends diverse musical worlds, from the traditional and popular sounds of her hometown, Mexico City, to avant-garde techniques and multimedia works. Her compositions showcase a sophisticated approach, marked by meticulous attention to rhythm and timbre. Ortiz’s repertoire spans large-scale orchestral and choral works like Yanga (2019), dynamic concertos such as Fractalis (2022), politically charged operas like Only the Truth (2008), evocative chamber pieces including Altar de muertos (1997), and intimate solo works such as Canto a Hanna (2005). Her music has been performed by esteemed ensembles, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, Ortiz was awarded the Bellas Artes Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed by Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts. Her accolades also include the National Prize for Arts and Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship, two GRAMMY^® Awards, and one Latin GRAMMY^® Award. A distinguished member of the Academy of the Arts, she has also been inducted into El Colegio Nacional, Mexico’s most prestigious intellectual institution. This season, Ortiz holds prominent residencies at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonia in London, and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. She is also a composition professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. Her works are published by Boosey & Hawkes.

About the Los Angeles Master Chorale

For more than 60 years, the multi- GRAMMY^® Award-winning Los Angeles Master Chorale has been a standard-bearer for choruses across America. Hailed for its powerful performances, technical precision and artistic daring, the Master Chorale reaches more than 175,000 people a year through its concert series at the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, its national and international touring of innovative works, and its performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and others. Led by Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, Associate Artistic Director Jenny Wong, and President & CEO Scott Altman, the Master Chorale was named “the finest-by-far major chorus in America” by the Los Angeles Times. 

From intimate performances with just six or eight singers to full-scale collaborations featuring 100 exquisite voices, the Master Chorale consistently thrills audiences with versatility and depth, performing early choral works in any language alongside pop classics and modern pieces, as well as exclusive commissions from the world’s most innovative composers. Voices of Master Chorale singers have been featured on numerous film scores, as well as on Academy Awards’ In Memoriam segments. For more information, please visit lamasterchorale.org.