KU News Release

KU music professor nominated for Grammy Award

LAWRENCE — Robert Koenig, associate professor of piano and chamber music at the University of Kansas, has been nominated for a Grammy Award for his recording of “Viola Transcriptions” by William Primrose.

“Viola Transcriptions” includes music by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Villa-Lobos, Wagner and others, transcribed by Primrose, a British violist, for viola and piano. Koenig recorded this release with Roberto Díaz, acclaimed violist and president of the Curtis Institute of Music. They made the recording in Toronto in 2004 and released it in summer 2006 on the Naxos label.

Naxos submitted “Viola Transcriptions” to the Recording Academy, and it was chosen from more than 150 submissions. The release will join four other nominees in the Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra) category.

“I’m so thrilled and honored to be nominated,” Koenig said. “This project meant so much to both Roberto and me. Just prior to this recording, Roberto had acquired the incredible Amati viola that William Primrose played for many years, and additionally, my former teacher and mentor at the Curtis Institute of Music, Dr. Vladimir Sokoloff, was William Primrose’s accompanist. From the start, everything about this project just felt so right. It means a great deal to both of us to be recognized by our peers and members of the Recording Academy.”

The 49th annual Grammy Awards will be Feb. 11 in the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Koenig performs regularly in major music centers and at festivals throughout the world. Recent engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is frequently heard on radio and television including ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “This Morning.”

Koenig was staff pianist at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music before accepting his current position at KU, where he has taught for seven years. While at KU, Koenig commissioned renowned American composer Lowell Liebermann to write a new trio for flute, cello and piano, with the assistance of the KU Center for Research.

Born in Saskatchewan, Canada, Koenig began his formal training at the Vancouver Academy of Music and later studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Academie Musicale di Chigiana in Siena, Italy. During that time he received several awards from the Canadian government including a Canada Council Project Grant. He completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in accompanying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

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