Eighth Blackbird’s Best Week Yet: A Grammy & a MacArthur Award
Blog intro
Congratulations are due to our artists in residence Eighth Blackbird this week as they won their fourth Grammy and a MacArthur.
Grammy
On Monday night, Eighth Blackbird was awarded Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album Filament (which you can preview below). Largely recorded at the MCA in 2013, Filament contains diverse performances and music, from a Philip Glass classic to Bryce Dessner's Murder Ballades, which will be performed during their March engagement on MCA Stage.
Performance view, Hand Eye, a collaboration between Eighth Blackbird and Sleeping Giant, MCA Chicago, Jan 23, 2016
Photo: Elliot MandelMacArthur
And today it was announced that the ensemble had also won one of the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative & Effective Institutions. Not earmarked for a specific project but intended to help the organization overall, the Eighth Blackbird performing arts association was awarded $400,000 for "creating new classical works through creative collaborations." From working in our galleries, to collaborating with musical leaders like Bryce Dessner or Nico Muhly, we salute the way that Eighth Blackbird is redefining what a “small ensemble” can do!