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The Latest NEC News: Grammy Nominations, Inventing a New Instrument, and More

November 18, 2022

Grammy 2022 Nominations

Members of the NEC community are making incredible contributions to the music community via award nominations and wins, competitions, sharing their music and expertise in the media, and beyond. Check out some of the latest news from the NEC community below. 

Congratulations to four NEC community members on their Grammy nominations this week!

Aoife O’Donovan ’03 is nominated for Best American Roots Song and Best American Roots Performance for “Prodigal Daughter,” and Best Folk Album for Age of Apathy.

Composer Stephanie Economou ’12 is nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.”

NEC Jazz faculty member Miguel Zenón is nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album for Música De Las Américas and Best Instrumental Composition for the single “El País Invisible.”

NEC Jazz faculty member Melissa Aldana is nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for “Falling.”

See the full list of nominees at the Grammys website


Grammy-nominated musician, composer, and NEC faculty member Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol ’00 MM, ’04 DMA was recently interviewed on WBUR’s Radio Boston about his new invention: the Sanlikol Renaissance 17, a digital microtonal keyboard with 17 keys per octave!

Watch a video of the Sanlikol Renaissance 17

Mehmet Ali performing

Amir Siraj ’23 was profiled in Astronomy for his work in astrophysics. The dual-degree Harvard-NEC student also recently performed alongside Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax at UNESCO in Paris – read our interview with him here if you missed it!

Amir Siraj

NEC community members have made a splash on recent musical podcasts.

Conductor and violinist Joshua Weilerstein ’09, ’11 MM was featured on a recent episode of Speaking Soundly, a new podcast from Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Trumpet David Krauss.

Joshua Weilerstein

Chamber Music Chair Merry Peckham was the featured guest on the first episode of the Merzbau Podcast, a new project from the Merz Trio.

Merry Peckham

Have news to share? Send it to us at social [at] necmusic.edu!

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