Houston Grand Opera’s Intelligence Wins Grammy

Written By Urban Bush Women

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has won the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording for the HGO-commissioned opera Intelligence.

Created by composer Jake Heggie  and librettist Gene Scheer,  in collaboration with director and choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. This world-premiere mounting was produced in collaboration with the acclaimed dance ensemble Urban Bush Women.

By HGO Staff

A poster reading “2026 GRAMMY Winner,” showing a gold Grammy trophy on the left and a line of performers bowing together on the right, celebrating Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Intelligence.

HOUSTON—February 1, 2026—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce that today, the company has won the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording for the HGO-commissioned opera Intelligence, created by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer in collaboration with director and choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar.

Recorded live during the opera’s world premiere run at the Wortham Theater Center in fall 2023 and released in August 2025, Intelligence preserves a masterful performance from a celebrated cast and the HGO Orchestra led by Maestro Kwamé Ryan. The recording represents the first release from the new Houston Grand Opera label, created in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra’s renowned label LSO Live as part of a distribution agreement announced in spring 2025.

This world-premiere mounting was produced in collaboration with the acclaimed dance ensemble Urban Bush Women.

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Urban Bush Women

Founded in 1984 by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women (UBW) seeks to bring the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance. We do this from a woman-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond.

https://www.urbanbushwomen.org
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