Joan Tower. Made in America. Tambor. Concerto for Orchestra. Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin, conductor. Liner notes by Gail Wein. 2007. Naxos—American Classics 8.559328


Winner of the 2008 Grammy awards for best Classical Contemporary Composition, best orchestral performance, and best Classical Album, Made in America is a triumph for every individual and institution connected to the recording. The sweep represents the first grammy for the Nashville symphony, previously nominated for recordings of works by Elliott Carter, Amy Beach, and George Whitfield Chadwick. Made in America is also the Nashville symphony's first recording under the venerable American music champion Leonard Slatkin, its music advisor, and its first produced in Nashville's new Schermerhorn Symphony Center. The performances, recorded in June 2006, and Naxos's recording quality of them here, are excellent; the three compositions offered (both Tambor and Made in America in premiere recordings), are among Tower's very best, and well served by this recording.