Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz has been recognised for her cello concerto Dzonot
The 68th Grammy Awards took place on 1 February in Los Angeles, CA, US. Among the accolades for string players, including a notable 20th Grammy Award for cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a Grammy nomination for violinist Curtis Stewart, the category for Best Contemporary Classical Composition was won by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz for her cello concerto Dzonot.
The work received its world premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in October 2024, performed by US cellist Alisa Weilerstein with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
In The Strad’s October 2025 issue, which featured Weilerstein as its cover artist, Peter Quantrill had the opportunity to interview Ortiz about her concerto. The following is an excerpt from Alisa Weilerstein: fragments of the future:
Gabriela Ortiz:
I went to see Alisa play a Fragments recital in Los Angeles, and I was blown away by the way she was combining Bach with new pieces, the staging and everything; I loved it. And so we talked. I had written a violin concerto for Maria Dueñas with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and I have always wanted to write a cello concerto. And Gustavo [Dudamel] and the orchestra suggested that Alisa would be perfect for this.
‘Dzonot’ is the Mayan name for cenotes – the network of underground pools and caverns on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. I already knew that this was an idea I wanted to explore in my concerto. But it made so much more sense when I saw Alisa play. She is so wild, as a musician. The second movement of my concerto is called ‘The Eye of the Jaguar’, and immediately I knew that the cello would be a jaguar, and I could see Alisa playing it in the heat of the jungle.
We had a small conversation on email, but otherwise I wrote the piece I wanted to. Gustavo, Alisa and I had a meeting, and I adjusted one or two small things. The first rehearsal is the critical moment for any composer – but Gustavo and the LA Phil are such monsters! Like Alisa, they understand everything. She gives me such confidence. She can play Dvořák beautifully, and could just stick to that repertoire, but she can play also Prokofiev, Ligeti and Unsuk Chin.
For me, as a composer, it’s an inspiration.
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