Winnipeg composer shares Grammy victory

While he didn't pick up a tiny golden statuette Sunday night, Winnipeg composer Gordon Fitzell is sharing in some Grammy glory.

Fitzell, who teaches music at the University of Manitoba, composed two pieces of music on an album that was handed two awards by the Recording Academy, the organization of musicians, producers, engineers and recording professionals that votes on the awards.

Fitzell's pieces, violence and evanescence, appear on the album strange imaginary animals by the classical ensemble eighth blackbird. The album won best chamber music performance and best classical producer.

The awards weren't handed out at Sunday's televised gala, so Fitzell watched online.

"It wasn't deemed interesting enough to be on TV," he said. "I was just at work, actually, and I thought I'd check online to see how things were going, and I saw that there was a link to catch it live on simulcast webcast and so there it was."

While the win hasn't brought him fame and fortune just yet, Fitzell said he's very proud of the group. Eight blackbird memorizes all their music, instead of reading it on paper, he said, something he finds especially impressive.

"Often my music is fairly complex," he said."I remember going down to Washington state some years ago to hear them for the very first time, and they had not only memorized my piece, but memorized the bar numbers and the scores and the beats and I could talk to them as if the score were right in front of them. So they're an amazing group."

Other Manitoba connections

Fitzell wasn't the only Manitoba connection at Sunday's awards.

Canadian violinist James Ehnes, born in Brandon, Man., and now a U.S. resident, won Canada's first Grammy award of the night.

Ehnes won for best instrumental solo performance (with orchestra) for his recording with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Loreena McKennitt, who was born in Morden near Winnipeg, saw her disc An Ancient Muse nominated as best contemporary world music album but lost to Angelique Kidjo's Djin Djin.