(Updated with details of the symphony's Grammy win).
When the New York Youth Symphony began working on an its first-ever album at the height of the pandemic, its Music Director Michael Repper said to them, only half-jokingly, "Let's go get a Grammy." That album, recorded over several days with different groups of musicians playing under strict Covid protocols, won a Grammy Award this weekend, vying with the likes of the Berlin Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Best Orchestral Recording category - the first time a youth symphony has been nominated and won in that category. A Tempo host Rachel Katz this week speaks with Repper, NYYS Executive Director Shauna Quill and principal clarinetist Joshua Choi, now a student at Juilliard, about the experience and the significance of both the nomination and the album itself.