Congratulations to our department’s four alumni who won Grammy Awards at the 62nd Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020! Grammy Awards are presented annually to honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the recording industry.
Best Children’s Music Album
Jon Samson (Music Therapy '05, pictured at right), Artist, Ageless Songs for the Child Archetype
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Alex DeTurk (Music Technology '06), Mastering Engineer, Finding Gabriel
Best Alternative Music Album
Emily Lazar (Music Technology '96), Mastering Engineer, Father of the Bride
Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
Joe LaPorta (Music Technology '02), Mastering Engineer, Burn the Ships
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Joe LaPorta (Music Technology '02), Mastering Engineer, Cuz I Love You (Deluxe)
In addition, Jazz adjunct Michael Rodriguez is the trumpet player on Chick Corea & The Spanish Heart Band’s Antidote, which won Best Latin Jazz Album.
Several members of the department's community were among the nominees for Grammy Awards. Music Composition artistic director and Professor Julia Wolfe and adjunct faculty Caroline Shaw were both nominated in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. Dr. Wolfe was nominated for her oratorio Fire in my mouth, while Professor Shaw’s nomination was for her string quartet Orange. (The Attacca Quartet won the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance Grammy for their performance of Orange.) David "Swagg R'Celious" Harris (Music Technology ’10) was nominated in the Album of the Year category as a producer and songwriter on I Used to Know Her by H.E.R. Ruben Blades, the school's Scholar-in-Residence, received a Best Latin Jazz Album nomination for Una Noche Con Rubén Blades.
Also, several members of our faculty performed on Grammy-nominated recordings this year. Percussion Studies adjunct faculty Javier Diaz plays on Best Musical Theater Album nominee Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. Hiding Out by Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra, a Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album nominee, features three Jazz Studies faculty members: program director Dave Pietro on sax and flute, and adjuncts Rogerio Boccato on percussion and Alan Ferber on trombone. Boccato also plays on Sorte!: Music by John Finbury, a Best Latin Jazz Album nominee, while Ferber worked as an arranger on Sara Gazarek's Thirsty Ghost, a Best Jazz Vocal Album nominee.
Finally, Music Technology adjunct Alan Silverman mastered two nominated records: Catherine Russell’s Alone Together, nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and Joseph Habedank’s Deeper Oceans, nominated for Best Roots Gospel Album.