NEC’s 2017 Grammy Nominations

December 13, 2017

Jazzy year for NEC Grammy noms, with additional nods in contemporary instrumental & classical.

Sanchez's nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album ("Bad Hombre") is one of 5 nominations for NEC alumni & faculty

New England Conservatory alumni and faculty from both the classical and jazz worlds have been honored with nominations for the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The ceremony will recognize the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, which runs from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The ceremony will be held on January 28, 2018, broadcast live on CBS from Madison Square Garden in New York City.

NEC celebrates the musical accomplishments of all our Grammy nominees and winners, past and present.
Find NEC's past Grammy winners

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About Fred HerschCollege | Jazz Studies

Jazz pianist and composer, Fred Hersch '77, who taught at NEC for many years, is nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for “Whisper Not” and Best Jazz Instrumental Album titled, Open Book.

Hersch has had seven previous Grammy nominations.

Hersch visited NEC in October 2017 as a guest artist for Monk's Dream: Thelonious Monk at 100. [Listen]

More about Fred Hersch

About Miguel ZenónCollege | Jazz Studies

Alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator,Miguel Zenón, who joined the NEC jazz faculty in 2009, is nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album with Típico. The Album celebrates the Miguel Zenón Quartet, his working band of more than 15 years.

Zenón is a four-time Grammy nominee and a two-time Latin Grammy nominee.

Concertgoers recently heard Zenón as a composer and featured soloist in Jordan Hall for Manteca: Dizzy Gillespie and the Birth of Latin Jazz, a concert honoring Gillespie's centennial.

More about Miguel Zenón

About Antonio SanchezCollege | Jazz Studies

Virtuoso drummer, composer, and percussionist, Antonio Sanchez ’98 G.D. is nominated in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his newest release,Bad Hombre.

Sanchez is a five-time Grammy winner and earned his Graduate Diploma from NEC in Jazz Studies - Performance. He is also noted for his original score to the Academy Award-winning film Birdman

More about Antonio Sanchez

About Leonard SlatkinCollege | Conducting

Internationally acclaimed conductor, musician, and NEC Honorary Doctorate recipient, Leonard Slatkin '16 D.M.A. Hon is nominated for Best Orchestral Performance for "Copland: Symphony No. 3; Three Latin American Sketches". Slatkin conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the performance.

Slatkin has received six Grammy awards and 33 nominations.

Slatkin visited NEC in October 2017 as a guest conductor, complimenting NEC students as "nearly the equals of their counterparts across the street at Symphony Hall."

More about Leonard Slatkin

About Richard DanielpourCollege | Composition College | Piano

Grammy-award winning composer, Richard Danielpour'80, is nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for "Danielpour: Songs of Solitude". Lyric Baritone Thomas Hampson performed the work with conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony.

Danielpour originally came to NEC to pursue piano studies, where his teachers were Theodore Lettvin, Veronica Jochum, and Gabriel Chodos. “They knew that my path would be towards writing, and helped me learn how to listen.” When he went on to study composition with John Heiss, his new teacher did this as well, “partly in terms of being open to all kinds of music: not looking at any school [of composition] as the ‘only show in town.’ [Heiss] was so important to me—unbelievably present.”

This spring, NEC Philharmonia will play a Danielpour composition on March 14 in Jordan Hall.

More about Richard Danielpour