The Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album is presented to recording artists for quality albums in the new-age music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards.[1] Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to “honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position”.[2]
Originally called the Grammy Award for Best New Age Recording, the honor was first presented to Swiss musician Andreas Vollenweider at the 29th Grammy Awards in 1987 for his album Down to the Moon. Two compilation albums featuring Windham Hill Records artists were nominated that same year.[3] The record label was founded by William Ackerman,[4] later an award nominee and 2005 winner for the album Returning. From 1988 to 1991 the category was known as Best New Age Performance. From 1992 to 2023, the award was presented as Best New Age Album. Beginning in 2001, award recipients included the producers, engineers, and/or mixers associated with the nominated work in addition to the recording artists.[5] From 2023, the category has been known as Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album.[6]
While “new-age” music can be difficult to define, journalist Steven Rea described the genre as “music that is acoustic, electronic, jazzy, folky and incorporates classical and pop elements, Eastern and Latin influences, exotic instrumentation, and environmental sound effects.”[7] According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award is presented for instrumental or vocal new-age albums “containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material”, with seasonal recordings not being eligible.[8] The addition of the award category reflected a “coming of age” of the music genre, though some musicians classified as new age dislike the term “new age” and some of its negative connotations.[7]
Multiple wins
As of 2015, Paul Winter holds the record for the most wins in this category, having won six times (four times as the leader of the group Paul Winter Consort). Winter is the only musician to win the award consecutively; he received an award in 1994 for Spanish Angel as a member of his ensemble and another in 1995 for Prayer for the Wild Things as a solo artist. Irish musician Enya has received four awards. Kitarō holds the record for the most nominations, with sixteen (with only one win, in 2001). All five volumes of Kitarō’s Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai series were nominated for Best New Age Album.
Pianist Peter Kater held the record for most nominations without a win, with 12, until he finally won his first Grammy (for Dancing on Water) in 2018. He also holds the record for the most consecutive nominations, with 11, having been nominated every year between 2007 and 2018.
Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai is the only artist to be nominated for more than one work within the same year; for the 42nd Grammy Awards he was nominated alongside Paul Horn for Inside Monument Valley and for his own album, Inner Voices.
Recipients
1980s
| Year | Work | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 [9] | ||
| Down to the Moon | Andreas Vollenweider | |
| Canyon | Paul Winter | |
| Rendez-Vous | Jean Michel Jarre | |
| Windham Hill Records Sampler ’86 | Various Artists | |
| A Winter’s Solstice | Various Artists | |
| 1988 [10] | ||
| Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony | Yusef Lateef | |
| Between Two Worlds | Patrick O’Hearn | |
| “The Field” | Kitarō | |
| “Reconciliations” | Liz Story | |
| “Sweet Intentions” | Montreaux | |
| Traveler | Paul Horn | |
| 1989 [11] | ||
| Folksongs for a Nuclear Village | Shadowfax | |
| Castalia | Mark Isham | |
| “Down in Belgorod” | Paul Winter | |
| Local Color | Steve Khan and Rob Mounsey | |
| Neverland | Suzanne Ciani |
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
| Year | Work | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 [40] | ||
| Wings | Peter Kater | |
| Deva | Deva Premal | |
| Fairy Dreams | David Arkenstone | |
| Homage to Kindness | David Darling | |
| Verve | Sebastian Plano | |
| 2021 [41] | ||
| More Guitar Stories | Jim “Kimo” West | |
| Form//Less | Superposition | |
| Meditations | Cory Wong and Jon Batiste | |
| Periphery | Priya Darshini | |
| Songs from the Bardo | Laurie Anderson, Tenzin Choegyal and Jesse Paris Smith | |
| 2022 [42] | ||
| Divine Tides | Stewart Copeland and Ricky Kej | |
| Brothers | Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster and Tom Eaton | |
| Night + Day | Opium Moon | |
| Pangaea | Wouter Kellerman and David Arkenstone | |
| Pieces of Forever | Laura Sullivan | |
| 2023 [43] | ||
| Mystic Mirror | White Sun | |
| Joy | Paul Avgerinos | |
| Mantra Americana | Madi Das and Dave Stringer with Bhakti Without Borders | |
| The Passenger | Cheryl B. Engelhardt | |
| Positano Songs | Will Ackerman | |
| 2024 | ||
| So She Howls | Carla Patullo featuring Tonality and The Scorchio Quartet | |
| Aquamarine | Kirsten Agresta-Copely | |
| Moments of Beauty | Omar Akram | |
| Ocean Dreaming Ocean | David Darling and Hans Christian | |
| Some Kind of Peace (Piano Reworks) | Ólafur Arnalds | |
| 2025 [44] | ||
| Triveni | Wouter Kellerman, Éru Matsumoto and Chandrika Tandon | |
| Break of Dawn | Ricky Kej | |
| Chapter II: How Dark It Is Before Dawn | Anoushka Shankar | |
| Opus | Ryuichi Sakamoto | |
| Warriors of Light | Radhika Vekaria | |
| 2026 [45] | ||
| Nomadica | Carla Patullo featuring The Scorchio Quartet and Tonality | |
| According to the Moon | Cheryl B. Engelhardt, GEM and Dallas String Quartet | |
| The Colors in My Mind | Chris Redding | |
| Into the Forest | Jahnavi Harrison | |
| Kuruvinda | Kirsten Agresta-Copely |
^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.
Artists with multiple wins
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Artists with multiple nominations
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See also
References
- General
- “Past Winners Search”. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- Specific
- ^ “Grammy Awards at a Glance”. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
- ^ “Overview”. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2011.
- ^ “Veterans top Grammy nominations”. The Herald. The McClatchy Company. January 8, 1987. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Conner, Thomas [in German] (August 28, 2010). “Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman in Chicago for benefit”. Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on January 9, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- ^ “Past Winners Search”. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010. Note: User must select the “New Age” category as the genre under the search feature.
- ^ Aswad, Jem (June 9, 2022). “Grammys Add New Awards: Songwriter of the Year, Song for Social Change, More”. Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Rea, Steven (February 22, 1987). “New-age Music: Hard To Define, But It Sells It Even Has A Grammy Category Of Its Own”. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Media Network. pp. 1–3. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “52nd OEP Category Description Guide” (PDF). National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 27, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ “29th Annual GRAMMY Awards | GRAMMY.com”. grammy.com. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
- ^ Christensen, Thor (January 17, 1988). “Grammy nominee list a bit weightier”. The Milwaukee Journal. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Journal Communications. p. 4E. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ “Nominations for 31st Grammy Awards”. The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2011.
- ^ “Here’s list of nominees from all 77 categories”. Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Publishing Company. January 12, 1990. p. W7. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- ^ “List of Grammy Awards nominations”. Times-News. Hendersonville, North Carolina: The New York Times Company. January 11, 1991. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- ^ “Grammy Nominations Span Streisand, Seal, Seattle Symphony”. The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. January 8, 1992. Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ “Grammy nominations”. The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, Maryland: Tribune Company. February 21, 1993. p. 3. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “The 37th Grammy Nominations”. Los Angeles Times. January 6, 1995. p. 5. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ “The 38th Annual Grammy Nominations: The Complete List of Nominees”. Los Angeles Times. January 5, 1996. p. 5. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ Errico, Marcus (January 7, 1997). “Babyface, Celine Dion Dominate Grammy Nominations”. E!. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ “40th Annual Grammy Awards: Final Nominations”. Billboard. Vol. 110, no. 3. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. January 17, 1998. p. 79. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ Marine, Craig (January 6, 1999). “Grammys go ga-ga for Lauryn Hill”. San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 14, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “A Complete List of the Nominees”. Los Angeles Times. January 5, 2000. p. 5. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ Boucher, Geoff (January 4, 2001). “Grammys Cast a Wider Net Than Usual”. Los Angeles Times. p. 7. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ “In a Distance Place”. Allmusic. All Media Guide. Archived from the original on 2012-01-25. Retrieved March 11, 2011. Note: Source used to verify full names of musicians.
- ^ “Final Nominations for the 44th Annual Grammy Awards”. Billboard. Vol. 114, no. 3. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. January 19, 2002. p. 90. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ “The complete list of nominees”. Los Angeles Times. January 8, 2003. p. 5. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ^ “46th Grammy Awards – 2004”. Rock on the Net. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
- ^ “47th Annual Grammy Awards”. VH1. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “The Complete List of Grammy Nominations”. The New York Times. December 8, 2005. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “Nominations for 49th Annual Grammy Awards”. E!. December 7, 2006. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ du Lac, J. Freedom (December 6, 2007). “Grammys: And The Nominees Are…” The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ Conner, Thomas [in German] (December 3, 2008). “Complete list of Grammy nominees”. Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Archived from the original on February 8, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ Venutolo, Anthony (January 31, 2010). “Grammy awards: Complete list of nominees”. The Star-Ledger. New Jersey On-Line. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “Complete List of Nominees for the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards”. E!. December 1, 2010. Archived from the original on March 11, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2011.
- ^ “List of 2013 nominees”. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012.
- ^ “2014 Nominees” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2013-12-08.
- ^ “List of Nominees 2015” (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-02-11. Retrieved 2014-12-07.
- ^ Unterberger, Andrew (6 December 2016). “Here Is the Complete List of Nominees for the 2017 Grammys”. Billboard. Archived from the original on 6 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
- ^ Lynch, Joe (6 December 2016). “Grammys 2018: See the Complete List of Nominees”. Billboard. Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
- ^ “Grammy.com, 7 December 2018”. 6 December 2018. Archived from the original on 7 December 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- ^ “2020 GRAMMY Awards: The Complete Winners & Nominees List”. GRAMMY.com. February 6, 2023. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
- ^ “2020 GRAMMY WINNERS &NOMINEES”. grammy.com. 15 December 2020. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
- ^ “2022 GRAMMYs Awards: Complete Nominations List”. GRAMMY.com. 2021-11-23. Archived from the original on 2021-11-25. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
- ^ “2023 GRAMMY Awards: The Complete Winners & Nominees List”. GRAMMY.com. February 6, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
- ^ “2025 GRAMMYs: See The OFFICIAL Full Nominations List | GRAMMY.com”. grammy.com. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
- ^ “2026 GRAMMYS: See The Full Nominations List | GRAMMY.com”. grammy.com. Retrieved 2025-11-12.
External links
- Grammy.com: Best New Age Album at 53rd Annual Grammy Awards Pre-Telecast Archived 2011-02-17 at the Wayback Machine