Performances + Events
Among the Grammy Award nominees announced on November 7 were numerous New England Conservatory alumni whose contributions to impactful recordings speak to the Conservatory’s vital presence in the world of music. Please join us in congratulating these accomplished musicians and rooting for them when Grammy Award winners are announced on Sunday, February 1.
Sean Hutchinson ’07 was an engineer on Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, including the single “Manchild.” The album was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. The single was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. Eli Teplin (Prep) was a songwriter on “Go Baby.” The song appears on Justin Bieber’s SWAG, which was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album. Teplin was also a songwriter on tracks that appear on Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE and Hayley Williams’s Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. Both albums were nominated for Best Alternative Music Album.
Michael Mayo ’14 was nominated in the Best Jazz Performance and Best Jazz Vocal Album categories for “Four” and Fly, respectively.
Sarah Jarosz ’13 and Aoife O’Donovan ’03, who, with Sara Watkins comprise the trio I’m with Her, were nominated for Best Folk Album for Wild And Clear And Blue, and for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for the track “Ancient Light.”
Amanda Ekery ’18 MM was nominated in the Best Album Notes category for her album Árabe.
Robert Dillon ’04 was nominated in the Best Engineered Album, Classical category for his work on Third Coast Percussion’s Standard Stoppages, which was also nominated for Best Chamber/Small Ensemble Performance.
Michael Repper and the National Philharmonic were nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Instrumental Solo categories for an album of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, including his Toussaint l’Ouverture, Ballade Op. 4, and Suites from 24 Negro Melodies. Laura Colgate ’06, ’09 GD is the National Philharmonic’s concertmaster.
Adam Tendler’s Inheritances was nominated in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. The album includes a piece titled hushing, by inti figgis-vizueta (Prep).
Han Chen ’18 GD was nominated in the same category for a performance of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. Price earned two diplomas from NEC in 1906. Learn more about her in “From the Archives: A Celebration of NEC’s African American Legacy.”
Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance category for a recording of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. Members of the BSO at the time of the recording include violinists Jenny Ahn ’11 MM, Glen Cherry ’95, John Holland ’00, ’02 MM, Jason Horowitz ’93, ’96 AD, Zenas Hsu ’13 MM, ’15 GD, Julianne Lee ’08 MM, Haldan Martinson ’97 MM, Kina Park ’09 MM, Caroline Pliszka ’02 MM, and Sophie Wang ’18 MM, ’20 GM; violists Nathaniel Farny ’02 GD, Mary Ferrillo ’13 MM, Stephanie Fong ’04 MM, Daniel Getz ’11 BM, and Steven O. Laraia ’13, ’15 MM; cellists Blaise Déjardin ’07 MM, ’08 GD, Jonah Ellsworth (Prep) ’17, ’19 GD, ’20 MM, and Mickey Katz ’03; double-bassists Benjamin Levy ’02 and Dennis Roy ’89; horn player Michael Winter ’07; percussionist Matthew McKay ’09; and assistant conductor Earl Lee ’16 GC. The BSO was also nominated in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for a recording of Shostakovich’s cello concertos with Yo-Yo Ma, and for a recording of Shostakovich’s piano concertos and solo works with Yuja Wang.
Numerous BSO musicians are members of NEC’s distinguished faculty, including violinists Jason Horowitz, Alexander Velinzon, and Valeria Vilker-Kuchment; violist Rebecca Gitter; cellists Blaise Déjardin and Mickey Katz; double-bassist Thomas Van Dyck; flutist Cynthia Meyers; oboists John Ferrillo, Mark McEwen, and Keisuke Wakao; clarinetists Christopher Elchico, William R. Hudgins, Thomas Martin, and Andrew Sandwick; bassoonists Suzanne Nelsen and Richard Svoboda; horn players Rachel Childers, Richard Sebring, Jason Snider, and Michael Winter; trumpet players Thomas Siders and Benjamin Wright; trombonists Stephen Lange, James Markey, and Toby Oft; tubist Mike Roylance; percussionists Daniel Bauch, Matthew McKay, and Will Hudgins; and harpist Jessica Zhou.
Also nominated in the Best Orchestral Performance category were Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, for a recording of music by William Grant Still and Margaret Bonds, and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony, for a recording of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra include violinist Christine Lim MM, violist Rachel Ku ’11 MM, and cellists Michael Katz ’09 MM and Priscilla Lee (Prep). The San Francisco Symphony roster includes violinists In Sun Jang ’06 GD and Jeein Kim ’21 MM; violists Katie Kadarauch ’03, David Kim ’05, Leonid Plashinov-Johnson ’19, and Jonathan Vinocour ’03 MM, ’04 GD; cellists Sébastien Gingras ’05 MM, ’06 GD and Davis You ’24; flutist Catherine Payne ’87 TUFTS/NEC, ’91 MM; associate principal clarinetist Matthew Griffith ’16 MM ’18 GD; and trombonist Christopher Bassett ’16 BM.
Jazz vocalist Luciana Souza ’94 MM was nominated as a soloist on Anne Akiko Meyers’s recording of Billy Childs’s In the Arms of the Beloved with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by Grant Gershon. Steve Pence ’04 MM is a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The ensemble is also featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of works by Gabriela Ortiz, Yenga, which was nominated for Best Classical Compendium. Members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic include violinists Chao-Hua Jin ’95, Rebecca Reale (Prep), Melody Ye Yuan ’19, and Weilu Zhang ’18; assistant principal cellist Dahae Kim ’11, ’13 MM; assistant principal trumpeter Christopher Still ’95MM; and percussionist Matthew Howard ’15 MM. The Los Angeles Philharmonic was also nominated in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category for Ortiz’s Dzonot, which appears on Yenga.
Soprano Amanda Forsythe ’01 MM was nominated in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category for her performance on Telemann: Ino — Opera Arias For Soprano, featuring the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, whose members include violinists Cynthia Roberts ’05 and Beth Wenstrom ’05 MM.
Kwamé Ryan and the Houston Grand Opera were nominated in the Best Opera Recording category for a performance of Jake Heggie’s Intelligence. Members of the Houston Grand Opera orchestra include flutist Tyler Martin ’19 MM and clarinetist Eric Chi ’08. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Metropolitan Opera were nominated in the same category for a recording of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded. Members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra include violinists Katherine Fong ’98, Yiliang Jiang ’19, ’21 MM, ’23 GD, Jeremias Sergiani-Valazquez ’14, and Qianwen Shen ’14 MM, ’16 GD; flutist Seth Morris ’09 MM; principal piccolo player Stephanie Mortimore ’97 MM; horn player Molly Norcross ’12 GD; and principal harpist Hannah Cope ’21 MM, ’22 GD. The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, which also performed on the recording, includes Andrea Coleman ’05 MM and Rachele Schmiege ’07 MM.
If we’ve missed a member of NEC’s alumni community, please let us know by sending an email to marketingadm@necmusic.edu.
