TORONTO - When informed of his first Grammy nomination, Peter Kiesewalter felt surprised, pleased and more than a little befuddled.
His East Village Opera Company is nominated for best classical crossover album for the disc "Olde School" at this Sunday's awards ceremony. That category is strange territory for what Kiesewalter considers a rock band.
"Honestly, I didn't know there was such a category . . . or what it even means," the Ottawa native said in a recent telephone interview.
"The label had a couple months earlier submitted us for a variety of categories, but you just sort of forget about it."
Since the inaugural Grammy Awards telecast in 1959 which featured 22 categories, organizers have gradually added more and more trophies. Awards will be given in 110 categories at the 51st Grammy Awards, with New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne leading with eight nods.
East Village Opera Company is among about a dozen artists or groups with Canadian connections nominated this year, almost all in somewhat obscure categories. They include Walter Ostanek of St. Catharines, Ont., who's vying for best polka album; Alberta's Northern Cree, up for best native American music album and Joel Zimmerman, a DJ from Niagara Falls, Ont., who performs under the name Deadmau5 and is competing in the category of best remixed recording, non-classical.
It's a safe bet that none of those awards will be part of the glitzy televised portion of the show. Instead, the winners will accept their trophies at a more muted ceremony held earlier in the day.
But Kiesewalter, who formed his band in New York in 2004 with fellow Ottawa native Tyley Ross after they collaborated on a film project, wasn't concerned so much about attention, but rather about the way the group was classified.
"I don't even think the people who invented the term (classical crossover) would know how to describe it," he said.
"Unfortunately, there's a bit of a stigma to the term classical crossover, not unlike what you feel when you hear 'new age.' ... (It) carries a bit of the stigma of, shall I say, cheese."
The other nominees in classical crossover are Gabriela Montero for "Baroque," Ronn McFarlane for "Indigo Road," Uri Caine Ensemble for "The Othello Syndrome" and the King's Singers for "Simple Gifts."
Kiesewalter says he was heartened to see that his fellow nominees were real musicians - instead of "cheesy record company-invented artists" - but still found that the East Village Opera Company, which reinterprets opera arias as full-blown rock tunes, didn't exactly fit in.
"Generally, I think the people that participate in that genre have been coming at it from the classical side," he said. "We're doing it exactly the opposite way. We're definitely a rock band approaching classical from our perspective.
"I think we're unique amongst the nominees this year - and probably unique amongst almost all crossover artists, for that matter."
Though Kiesewalter said he was happy to receive the nomination, he questioned whether Grammy's broad array of categories exists solely to honour a diverse cross-section of music.
"Cynics might say there are 110 categories because the (Recording) Academy needs to keep increasing its annual amount of membership dues," he said. "That's why they keep inventing categories."
So he isn't sure exactly what this nomination -- or the award -- could do for his career.
"I have a couple friends who are three-time Grammy winners and they're struggling to find work," he said. "I look at them and I say: big deal."
Yet he also says that there are some benefits to those magical two words he can now place in front of his band's name: "Grammy nominated."
"There is a certain validation that comes with this, that I felt immediately, as ridiculous as that might seem," he said. "It certainly picks up some people's ears, and they might not give you two looks, (but) they will this time around.
"That's just the way it is. It's unfortunate, but there is a certain gravitas that even a nomination brings. Face it, we're an unknown entity in the music world. But I think certain theatres might give us a second look because of the nomination."
And long-term?
"I have no idea," he said. "Nominations? Probably not much about a week after the awards. An actual award? Who knows? Do you know who the classical crossover winner from last year is? ...
"But at the end of the day, a Grammy is a Grammy. There's not going to be an asterisk beside ours that says: 'By the way, it was in a marginal category."'
