Artists from the ABC Classics & Jazz roster took out both the Classical and Jazz ARIA Awards last month.

Saffire’s debut album was named winner in the Best Classical Album category, in a strong field that included CDs by bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, harpist Marshall McGuire, previous winner soprano
Yvonne Kenny and last year’s winner Slava Grigoryan in duo mode with brother Leonard Grigoryan.

After taking out the ARIA in the same category in 2002, Best Jazz Album winner Andrea Keller has cemented her standing as one of Australia’s pre-eminent jazz musicians. The album Mikrokosmos has given a fresh contemporary take on the music of Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Mikrokosmos was also the recipient of the Best Contemporary Jazz Album award at the Melborune Jazz Awards earlier this year.