Gabriela Ortiz's Yanga wins multiple Grammy Awards
Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga on Platoon won multiple honors at the 68th GRAMMY® Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Dzonot—making Ortiz the only composer to win this category in consecutive years.
On February 1, 2026, The Recording Academy announced the winners of the 68th GRAMMY® Awards. Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga was recognized in three categories—Best Choral Performance, Best Classical Compendium, and Best Contemporary Classical Composition—celebrating the recording’s visionary blend of orchestral and choral forces that bring Ortiz’s powerful score to life.
Ortiz’s Dzonot was recognized in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category, making her the only composer to win the category in consecutive years. Written for and recorded by cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the concerto will receive its UK premiere March 11–13 with Weilerstein and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Marin Alsop, presented as part of Ortiz’s composer residency with the orchestra this season.
The album was produced and engineered by Dmitriy Lipay and Alexander Lipay. Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Master Chorale were recognized in the Best Choral Performance category for their impassioned performance of Yanga. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, producer Dmitriy Lipay and composer Gabriela Ortiz were awarded the GRAMMY® for Best Classical Compendium.
These GRAMMY® wins continue a series of distinguished achievements for Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil’s recordings with the Apple-owned Platoon label. Yanga is the second portrait album devoted to Ortiz’s music and follows the triple-GRAMMY® and Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning Revolución diamantina.
Gabriela Ortiz writes some of the most intense and colorful music of our time—often engaging deeply with issues of social justice, gender, and the environment. Her music unites disparate worlds, and lives by a compelling rhythmic drive and street-born authenticity.
Commissioned by the LA Phil and recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Yanga weaves complex rhythms, traditional instruments, and choral textures into a vivid musical meditation on resistance, freedom, and cultural identity. It is performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
The album also showcases Ortiz’s evocative cello concerto Dzonot, in which Alisa Weilerstein’s luminous cello becomes a human voice moving through sonic landscapes of water, depth, and time, reflecting on both the beauty and the vulnerability of this environment. This new work was inspired by the cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula—underground river systems with immense historical, spiritual, and ecological significance.
Yanga has received praise from critics around the world: The Times of London included the recording in the “Seven Best Classical Albums of 2025,” saying: “Everything on this album testifies to Ortiz’s artistry and strength of purpose, the LA Phil’s luster and Dudamel’s skill in shaping the music’s exotic tapestries.” Gramophone stated that the album “reminds us of music’s unique power to honor history while inspiring hope for the future.”
Gustavo Dudamel said: “I’m deeply proud to have this recording be recognized with a GRAMMY® Award. Yanga powerfully symbolizes the strength and resilience of those who fight for freedom, and offers a reminder of the enduring struggle against oppression that continues to this day. This is music that resonates with the rhythms of culture, nature, and humanity.”
Gabriela Ortiz said: “My music is rooted in the belief that sound connects us to our origins, and music becomes a way of speaking about who we are, and what affects us as human beings. Inspired by the historical figure of Yanga, the work explores the essence of freedom—not only as a historical achievement, but as a living and urgent concept. Yanga becomes a symbol of resistance, dignity, and collective memory—one whose meaning continues to resonate in our present time. I am deeply grateful to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel and Alisa Weilerstein for their trust and sustained support of my work. Their commitment has made it possible for me to develop artistic projects that have borne meaningful results and have been a fundamental learning process in my artistic life. I see music as a form of testimony: a way to speak about freedom, memory, and our responsibility toward the world we inhabit. From art and sound, I can address histories that still shape us, and realities that urgently demand our attention.”
Grant Gershon, Artistic Director of Los Angeles Master Chorale said: “We are so grateful to have been a part of this brilliant work by Gabriela Ortiz. The extraordinary 16th-century African liberator Gaspar Yanga lives on through Gaby’s vivid music. The LA Master Chorale, alongside the LA Phil, Tambuco, and of course Gustavo Dudamel, knocked it out of the park with this recording. We're very proud to have been a part of it!”
Kim Noltemy, President & Chief Executive Officer at the LA Phil, said: “We are thrilled to once again receive GRAMMY® recognition with the incomparable Gabriela Ortiz’s Yanga, a work of extraordinary imagination and purpose, and we are deeply proud to see it honored alongside our collaborators at the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Platoon, and under the visionary leadership of Gustavo Dudamel. These awards underscore the profound impact that commissioning new music can have on culture and the future of this art form.”
Katie Ferguson, Platoon’s Head of Classical, added: “Yanga represents not only Gabriela Ortiz’s extraordinary artistic voice but also the trailblazing creative spirit of Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil. We are truly honored to see these artists and their work recognized, these GRAMMY® wins acknowledge not only artistic excellence, but also the enduring power of music to tell meaningful stories and connect cultures.”
> Further information on Work: Dzonot
Photo: Rankin for the Recording Academy® 2026