Finalist: In the Arms of the Beloved, by Billy Childs

Billy Childs was born in Los Angeles on March 8th, 1957. In 1975, he entered USC as a composition major, graduating four years later with a bachelor of music in composition under the tutelage of Robert Linn.

Since then Mr. Childs has received a number of orchestral and chamber commissions from, among others: Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The National Symphony, The San Diego Symphony, The Kronos Quartet, the Dorian Wind Quintet, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, the Ying Quartet, the Lyris Quartet, Anne Akiko Meyers, Rachel Barton Pine, Steven Banks, Anthony and Demarre McGill and the Isidore String Quartet.

Thus far, in his career, Childs has garnered seventeen Grammy nominations and six Grammy awards: two for best instrumental composition (Into the Light from Lyric and The Path Among The Trees from Autumn: In Moving Pictures), two for best arrangement accompanying a vocalist (including New York Tendaberry from Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, featuring Renee Fleming and Yo-Yo Ma), and two for best instrumental jazz album (Rebirth, 2018 and The Winds of Change, 2024). In 2006, Childs was awarded a Chamber Music America composer’s grant, and in 2009 was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. He has also been awarded a composers award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2015). His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Disney Concert Hall. In 2018, Childs was named “Outstanding Alumnus” of the Thornton School of Music (sharing that honor with, among others, Morton Lauridsen, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Marilyn Horne). Childs has also served as president of Chamber Music America (2016-2022).

Childs’ solo jazz recording career began in 1988, when he released four critically acclaimed albums on the Windham Hill Jazz label. Mr. Childs has also recorded two volumes of “jazz/chamber music” (an amalgam of jazz and classical music) – Lyric, Vol. 1 (2006) and Autumn: In Moving Pictures, Vol. 2 (2010); both recordings have collectively been nominated for five Grammy awards (winning twice). Childs recorded a collection of re-imagined Laura Nyro compositions for Sony Masterworks, released in September 2014. Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, was produced by Larry Klein and features as guest artists, among others: Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Wayne Shorter, Alison Kraus, Dianne Reeves, Chris Botti, Esperanza Spalding, and Lisa Fischer. In 2017, Childs released the first of his two Mack Avenue recordings, Rebirth, which won the 2018 Grammy award for best instrumental jazz album. Acceptance, his second Mack Avenue recording, was released in 2020, and his third Mack Avenue recording, The Winds of Change was released in March 2023.

As a pianist Childs has performed with, among others, Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, Renee Fleming, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Detroit Symphony, Rachel Barton Pine, Anne Akiko Meyers, Chick Corea, the Kronos Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette, the Dorian Wind Quintet, Ying Quartet, the American Brass Quintet and Dave Holland.