Independent audio engineers Curt Wittig of Washington, DC and David Moulton of Groton, Mass., received a GRAMMY Nomination for their work on a CRI compact disc of music by George Crumb performed by the Philadelphia-based ensemble Orchestra 2001 (CRI CD 803). The nomination, in category 84 "Best Engineered Album, Classical" was announced by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences today in Los Angeles. The 42nd annual Grammy Awards will be given on February 23, 2000 also in Los Angeles.

Wittig and Moulton recorded the disc in five sessions, from February, 1997 through May, 1998 at the Lang Concert Hall of Swarthmore College, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Subsequent editing and mastering were by Wittig. The digital recording was made in both stereo and five-channel Circle SurroundTM, for optional playback on surround systems. CRI's disc, which contains both the stereo and the optional surround encoding, was released in December, 1998.

The repertoire consists of four compositions by George Crumb: his widely-acclaimed vocal work Ancient Voices of Children (1970), the solo piano work A Little Suite for Christmas, A.D. 1979, a premiere recording of his Three Early Songs (1947), and the chamber work Dream Sequence (Images II) (1976). The soloists were soprano Barbara Ann Martin and pianist Marcantonio Barone. The conductor was Jim Freeman, who is Artistic Director of Orchestra 2001.

The compact disc was made possible through in-kind support of Swarthmore College and grants to Orchestra 2001 from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Blue Ridge Foundation, and Mr. Robert Weyerhaeuser.

This is the second consecutive year that a CRI recording has received a GRAMMY Nomination. Last year, the disc "Voces Americanas" (CD773), featuring performances of Latin American repertoire by the Dallas-based ensemble Voices of Change, was nominated for Best Performance by a Small Ensemble.