Zuill Bailey, artistic director of the Northwest Bach Festival, earns Grammy nomination

Zuill Bailey’s phone blew up at 5 a.m. Tuesday, as congratulatory messages started pouring in from friends on the East Coast.

He assumed the good wishes were the result of his being named a 2016 Musical Innovator by Musical America, which to him is a pretty big deal.

He was wrong. Instead, his friends were reacting to the news that Bailey has been nominated for a Grammy for his solo instrumental work on Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” and that the recording was nominated in two other categories.

“It’s a good way to start out the day,” said Bailey, who is in Spokane this week for a series of performances. “So my phone literally has been ringing off the hook all day long. It’s been a very good day.”

Bailey, an acclaimed cellist and artistic director of the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane, was the featured soloist for the world premiere of “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero. While Bailey’s performance earned an individual nod, the piece itself also took nominations for composer Michael Daugherty in the best contemporary classical composition category, and for best classical compendium.

The record, “Michael Daugherty: Tales of Hemingway, American Gothic & Once Upon a Castle (Live),” was released on the Naxos American Classics label in September. In some ways it was an unusual experience, Bailey said. Before even “putting pen to paper” Daugherty went to hear Bailey and his cello – a 1693 Matteo Gofriller – perform the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Detroit Symphony. From that, Daugherty decided that Bailey’s cello would be the “voice of Ernest Hemingway and tell his story,” Bailey said.

But, “the thing that makes this record so spectacular is that it’s live, and it’s the premiere performance of the piece,” Bailey added. “It was scary and amazing at the same time, because the piece was birthed before the microphones.”

(Daugherty might be a familiar name in Spokane. He composed “Letters From Lincoln,” the piece commissioned by the Spokane Symphony in 2009. Thomas Hampson, who was raised in Spokane, was the featured vocal soloist.)

While this marks Bailey’s first Grammy nomination – the awards ceremony is Feb. 12 – he said he’s equally as thrilled by his inclusion on the Musical Innovator list. Musical America cited some of the outreach work he’s done in Spokane, including performances in neonatal intensive care units, oncology wards and homeless shelters. “To be acknowledged for that nationally and globally, as what we’re doing here is changing lives, it’s very meaningful,” he said. “It’s a wonderful, warm feeling.”

Gertrude Harvey, executive director of Connoisseur Concerts, which produces the Bach Festival, echoed the appreciation. “This is a really great day for Zuill with the Grammy nomination and the Musical Innovators recognition from Musical America,” she said. “I could not be more pleased for this hard-working, amazing guy that we are so fortunate to have as artistic director.”

Bailey, who has been artistic director of the Spokane festival since 2014, is an accomplished international soloist who has recorded works by J.S. Bach, Antonin Dvorak, Edward Elgar and Johannes Brahms. He has worked with conductors including Itzhak Perlman, Andrew Litton, the late James DePriest and Grant Llewellyn. He performed Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto and P.I. Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Spokane Symphony in 2013.

Along with his work with the Northwest Bach Festival, Bailey is artistic director of El Paso Pro-Musica in Texas and Alaska’s Sitka Summer Music Festival, Series and Cello Seminar, is guest artistic director of the Mesa Arts Center in Arizona and professor of cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

He’s in the Spokane area this week, performing the Bach Festival’s December Classics series. He’s in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday and at Barrister Winery in Spokane on Friday and Sunday. For details, visit http://www.nwbachfest.com/. The “Hemingway” CD will be available for sale at the concerts. The Bach Festival is Feb. 21-March 5.