A performance by the Kronos Quartet of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks’ “String Quartet No. 4” is among recordings nominated for a Grammy Award, the Recording Academy has announced in Los Angeles.

The performance, released in August on a compact disc single, is one of three by the Kronos Quartet featuring work by three internationally known composers, according to quartet’s recording company, Nonesuch Records. The compositions were commissioned to celebrate the Kronos Quartet’s 30th anniversary. Vasks’ “String Quartet No. 4,” according to Nonesuch, “somberly reflects on the passing of the last century.”

The Kronos Quartet was nominated twice this year for Best Chamber Music Performance, once for the Vasks composition and once for its performance of Austrian composer Alban Berg’s “Lyric Suite,” which features the soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Others nominated in the category are Michael Cox, Nicholas Daniel and the Maggini Quarter for “String Quartet No. 1” by Arthur Bliss; Speculum Musicae for “Oboe Quartet” by Elliott Carter, and Boris Berman and the Vermeer Quartet for their performances of piano quintets by Dmitry Shostakovich and Alfred Schnittke.

The Kronos Quartet, formed in 1973 in Seattle but now based in San Francisco, consists of Jennifer Culp on cello, Hank Dutt on viola, David Harrington on violin and John Sherba on violin.

In other Baltics-related Grammy nominations, two recordings involving Estonian choirs are up for awards for Best Choral Performance. Conductor Paul Hillier is nominated for his work on Baltic Voices 1, featuring the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Conductor Paavo Jarvi and chorus masters Tiia-Ester Loitme and Ants Soots are nominated for Sibelius: Cantatas, which features the Ellerhein Girls’ Choir, the Estonian National Male Choir and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

Robina G. Young is nominated for Classical Producer of the Year for her work on several recordings including Baltic Voices 1 and The Powers Of Heaven, both of which feature Hillier conducting the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

Winners of the Grammy Awards will be announced Feb. 8. —Andris Straumanis

The first three albums of “Mantojums” (Inheritance), a new series of recordings featuring Latvian folk stories and beliefs, has been released by Upe Recording Co. in Rīga.

The albums include Pasaules radīšana, featuring creation stories told by Leons Krivāns, and Putnu un zvēru valoda, featuring stories about the language of birds and animals told by Pēteris Liepiņš. Both albums include music composed by Kaspars Tobis.

The third album, Stāsti un dziesmas, features 96-year-old storyteller Marija Golubova of the Viļaka region talking about her life and singing songs. The album is produced by folk singer Biruta Ozoliņa.

“The stories are first of all meant for children,” Ainars Mielavs, head of Upe Recording, told Latvians Online. “But adults who have heard them also found them interesting.” The Golubova recording, meanwhile, is meant for a narrow audience. “Absolutely noncommercial,” Mielavs said of the album.

How many more albums will be produced is not yet known, Mielavs said, and will depend on reaction to these first three.

The stories were chosen based on how interesting and engrossing they are. “UPE isn’t about to become an academic publisher and do what the state’s cultural politicians should do,” Mielavs commented.

Mielavs credited his wife, Iveta Mielava, for the idea for “Mantojums.” She also is the producer of the series. —Andris Straumanis

It was a little after 4 p.m. earlier this month when Marija Naumova answered her mobile phone. The constant drone in the background belied that she was behind the wheel, driving somewhere in Rīga. “We could talk now, but it would be better if you’d call back in 15 minutes,” Naumova said to a reporter in the American Midwest.

Fifteen minutes later the background noise was gone, although Naumova sounded as if she had just caught her breath.

Small wonder: The popular singer had just wrapped up a trio of performances as part of her “Divas sejas” show in three different Latvian cities, was readying for another concert and, apparently, just beginning to think about her upcoming tour of North America. Also on Naumova’s calendar is next spring’s “Sound of Music” show in Rīga featuring Baltic artists.

A year and a half after her Eurovision Song Contest victory in Tallinn, Estonia, the singer and her team are as occupied as ever.

At least Naumova has had some time off. After a busy spring and summer, including co-hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia, Naumova and her yoga instructor headed off to India to relax.

“It was fantastic,” Naumova said of her two weeks near the Tibetan border. While the trip’s influence might not be heard immediately in her music, Naumova said she’s found a “simple peace.”

She’ll need it.

In late November and early December, a skeleton crew will be in Canada and the United States, traveling to 10 Latvian communities to perform a baker’s dozen of concerts with material from several of Naumova’s recent albums, as well as some new songs.

“It will all be live,” the singer said of the North American shows. Band members are to include a guitar player, a percussionist and a synthesizer player, Naumova explained.

“And, of course, the voice,” Naumova added with a light laugh.

Most audiences may expect to hear material from her album Noslēpumi, released last year, as well as work inspired by her collaboration with composer Raimonds Pauls. Shows at The Note in Chicago and at the American Latvian Youth Association congress in California might include songs from her 2001 French album, Ma voix, ma voie, and perhaps some material in English, she explained. (Naumova, who was educated in law, speaks five languages, including her native Russian, Latvian, English, French and Italian.)

The exact set list will be driven by a sense of what the audience is like, Naumova said.

The singer won’t be focusing just on entertaining Latvian audiences. Meetings are planned with American record producers, too, she said, but declined to discuss details. Besides Latvia, her albums so far have been released in France and Germany.

The North American tour will place Naumova in Chicago for two concerts on Nov. 23; in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Nov. 24; in Minneapolis, Minn., on Nov. 26; at the ALYA congress in Los Angeles on Nov. 29; in Indianapolis, Ind., on Dec. 2; in Cleveland, Ohio, on Dec. 4; in Toronto for two shows on Dec. 6; in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Dec. 10; in New York on Dec. 12 and 13; and at the Priedaine camp near Freehold, N.J., on Dec. 14. This will be Naumova’s second time in the United States. She performed last year at the Baltic Celebration concert in Washington, D.C.

The concert tour is sponsored by ALYA and the New York-based cultural organization Tilts.