New England Conservatory Faculty and Alumni Receive Fourteen 2024 Grammy Nominations
New England Conservatory alumni and faculty are included in nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards, receiving fourteen total nominations. Winners will be announced at the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
Sanlikol: A Gentleman Of Istanbul, an album by NEC faculty member Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, along with George Lernis & A Far Cry, earned a nomination in the category Best Engineered Album, Classical. A Far Cry has a long-term educational partnership with NEC and many of its musicians are alums, including Annie Rabbat ’09 GD, Celia Hatton ’11, ’13 MM, Francesca McNeeley ’18 GD, Lizzie Burns ’14, Michael Unterman ’08, ’11 MM, Rafi Popper-Keizer ’97 MM, ’99 AD, and Zenas Hsu ’13 MM, ’15 GD.
Pianist Fred Hersch '77, an alumnus who long served on NEC's faculty, earned two nominations for Alive at the Village Vanguard, his duo album with esperanza spalding. The album was nominated in the categories Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Jazz Performance for the track “But Not for Me.” Hersch received NEC's Outstanding Alumni Award in 1990.
Alumnus and composer Darcy James Argue ‘02 MM earned a nomination in the category Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for Dynamic Maximum Tension, with his group Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society.
Alumna Luciana Souza ’94 MM, earned a nomination in the category Best Latin Jazz Album for Cometa with Trio Corrente.
Alumnus and bassoonist James Gaffigan ‘01, was part of a group including Peter Herresthal and the Bergen Philharmonic, performing on Mazzoli: Dark With Excessive Bright, Missy Mazzoli, composer, which earned a nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
Alumni Alex Brown ‘09, and members of the Harlem String Quartet Ilmar Gavilán ‘12 and Melissa White ‘12 were part of a group including Imani Winds, Edward Perez, Neal Smith and A.B. Spellman; Silas Brown and Mark Dover, producers on the album Passion for Bach and Coltrane which earned a nomination for Best Classical Compendium.
Four NEC alumni received nominations for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Anthony McGill and the Pacifica Quartet, which includes alumnus Austin Hartman ‘04 MM, received a nomination for “American Stories.” Third Coast Percussion, which includes alumnus Robert Dillon ‘04 MM, was nominated for “Between Breaths.” Catalyst Quartet, which includes alums Abi Fayette ‘19 and Paul Laraia ‘12, was nominated for “Uncovered, Vol. 3: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still & George Walker.”
The Scorchio Quartet, including alumnus and cellist Leah Coloff ’90, earned a nomination with Carla Patullo and Tonality in the category of Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album for “So She Howls.”
Alumnus and vocalist Timur Bekbosunov ’04 MM, along with his group The Dime Museum and the Isaura String Quartet, received a nomination in the category Best Opera Recording for their opera Black Lodge.
NEC Preparatory School alumnus Teddy Abrams ‘01 Prep, conductor of the Louisville Orchestra, earned a nomination with violinist Yuja Wang in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo for “The American Project.”
These are among a long line of NEC Grammy nominees and winners. In 2023, NEC had two Grammy winners. Alumna Stephanie Economou ‘12 Composition made history as the first-ever winner of the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for "Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok." Composer Steven Feifke, who graduated from the NEC Prep Certificate Program in 2009, won his first Grammy for “Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra” in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album Category.