NICK WINS GRAMMY AWARD FOR BEST OPERA RECORDING

*Nicholas Phan accepts the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Kaija Saariaho’s ‘Adriana Mater’ with the San Francisco Symphony*

American tenor Nicholas Phan won the 2025 Grammy® Award for Best Opera Recording for his starring role on the world premiere recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater. This was his fifth Grammy® Award nomination and his first win.

The Deutsche Grammophon release captures the tenor’s live performance with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Peter Sellars’s production last June. Phan sings the role of Yonas, a young adolescent who discovers the horrific story of his parentage and must decide whether to continue the cycle of violence that conceived him. The New York Times found Phan’s performance “agile, heldentenor-like,” whileOpera Today praised the way he brought “striking artistic finesse to this very complex role.”

*Grammy® nominee portrait with Palaver Strings members Elizabeth Moore and Kamyron Williams*

Phan received was also nominated in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category this year for his album A Change is Gonna Come, recorded for Azica with jazz vocalist Farayi Malek and Palaver Strings. The album’s nomination marked Phan’s fourth nomination in the category since 2018, when he became the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the category’s 67-year history. The album examines song as a form of protest and features the tenor’s world premiere recording of Protest Songs, a song cycle commissioned from Errollyn Wallen, the UK’s Master of the King’s Music. Selecting the recording as one of its “Critics’ Choice 2024” best of the year picks, Gramophone magazine writes: “Phan is a fine protagonist, steering this provocative course between cantata and musical theater. His fervent, crystalline diction fuels the revolution.”