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About 24 hours after winning their first Grammy, the Houston Chamber Choir was already back at rehearsal. Director Bob Simpson, who founded the 22-singer ensemble in 1995, came directly from the airport.

“Which seemed fitting because that’s where all the stuff that we really care about starts,” he says. “It brought us back to earth in a very good way.”

The choir won in the best choral performance categorty for their 2017 recording of “Duruflé: Complete Choral Works,” a collection of pieces by the 20th-century French composer Jacques Duruflé. Simpson; his wife, Marianna; and a handful of other HCC staffers attended the ceremony, held Jan. 26 at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. The nominees were announced according to the director’s name, so when the winner was announced via album title, Simpson admits he was thrown for a bit of a loop.

“I sat there for a moment just kind of thinking, and my wife next to me just said, ‘We won! We won!’,” he explains. “Then I came to life and I understood, but the actual moment just kind of passed me by.”

A few days removed, Simpson of course says he’s on “cloud nine” – and grateful he had the forethought to work up a speech he assumed he’d never deliver.

“There were so many people I wanted to thank and it would have been a shame to walk off and think, ‘Ugh, I forgot to thank so-and-so,’ because this really was a team win,” he says.

“What I’m really saying is that I am thrilled,” adds Simpson. “I’m thrilled for the chamber choir and the validation that it gives us, but I’m also thrilled for Houston and for the arts community here, and the visibility and credibility that it adds to an already outstanding cultural arts scene.”

The chamber choir joins Willie Nelson and Gary Clark Jr. as Texas’ 2020 Grammy winners, and the King’s Singers as recording artists for UK-based Signum Classics to achieve the honor.

“We were introduced to this fine U.S. choir by [composer and King’s Singers alum] Bob Chilcott, and are delighted to be able to share in the success of the Grammy win with them,” Signum CEO Steve Long said in a statement. “We already have future release plans with Robert and the Houston Chamber Choir and we look forward to continued successes going forward.”

In fact, Simpson says the choir plans to begin recording Chilcott’s “Circlesong,” based on a series of Native American texts, next month. Since the win, they’ve already heard from parties as far-ranging as the BBC and people he knew in high school, he adds.

Back at Monday’s rehearsal, the mood was celebratory. Simpson was treated to a video of hundreds of people at South Main Baptist Church, on hand for HCC’s annual Hear the Future concert the previous evening, going wild as the choir’s win was announced shortly before they took the stage.

“We sat around for the first hour of our two-and-a-half hour rehearsal talking about what had happened here and what happened there, and then [had] a chance to visit over champagne and cheese,” he smiles. “Then we finally decided we needed to sing some.”

Chris Gray is a Houston-based writer.