A recording of "Casa Guidi," a vocal work by American composer and librettist Dominick Argento has won the American recording industry's top award, the Grammy, for Best Classical Album. The recording was made by the Minnesota Orchestra under the baton of Eiji Oue. The 46-year-old Japanese conductor served as the Minnesota Orchestra's Music Director from 1995 through 2002. Four recordings he made with the orchestra became Grammy nominations before the fifth nomination captured the award.

 Dominick Argento is the founder of the Minnesota Opera and is a Regents Professor of music at the University of Minnesota. Oue was close to Argento during his term as Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra, producing two albums of Argento's works during that period. The second of these recordings was the recent Grammy winner. It was released on the American label, Reference Recordings, and is available in Japan as an import.

 Born in Hiroshima in 1957, Oue studied under Leonard Bernstein and Hideo Saito. He served as Music Director of the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990-95 before going to the Minnesota Orchestra. He is presently Chief Conductor of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra in Hannover, Germany and has also been Music Director of the Osaka Philharmonic since April, 2003.

 Upon learning that he had received the Grammy, Oue commented, "It is a great honor and I am truly delighted. This gives me the feeling of having a clear vision of the direction I should now be taking. I hope to be taking up new challenges and doing really meaningful work."

 The above article was translated from the Japanese with the permission of the well-known Japanese music magazine "Mostly Classic." It appeared on the magazine's Web site ("MOSTLY CLASSIC.excite") on February 26, 2004.