Theatre Professor David Henry Hwang's opera, An American Soldier, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.
Hwang wrote the libretto An American Soldier, which is based on the true story of Chinese-American Army Private Danny Chen. While serving in Afghanistan, Chen was found dead in a guard tower. The story follows Chen’s life, death, and the courts-martial which came after. As put by Pearlman Performing Arts Center, the NYC theater where the opera ran in May 2024, Chen “sought to serve his country, only to find his biggest threat was the very people who swore to protect him.
In an interview with WGTE back in August, Hwang spoke about the power that he hoped An American Soldier would have on its audience. “I hope that in this moment when the very definition of what it means to be an American is called into question, that this opera will first and foremost be a wonderful piece of music and emotionally engaging and powerful,” Hwang shared. “But also I think the subject compels us to ask to recognize that immigrants and people from traditionally marginalized communities are really central to America’s history and present and heart and identity."
Hwang is a Tony Award winner and four-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, a Grammy winner and two-time nominee, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Recent honors include an Honorary Doctorate (his seventh) from California State University, his election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, his induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and the Dramatists Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award. David Henry Hwang’s stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Chinglish, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the musicals Soft Power, Aida, Flower Drum Song and Disney’s Tarzan.
Other Columbia nominees for this year's Grammy Awards include Jeanine Tesori (BC '83), whose composition, "Grounded," conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and performed by The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, is also nominated for Best Opera Recording. Vince Cherico, Associate in Music Performance in the Department of Music, is nominated twice in the Best Latin Jazz Album category as part of Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, which dominated the nominations list with two of their albums, The Original Influencers: Dizzy, Chano & Chico and Mundoagua - Celebrating Carla Bley.
