NEC's 2015 Grammy Nominations

NEC Musicians Honored with Grammy Nominations

New England Conservatory alumni and faculty were included in nominations for the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, announced yesterday.

The Grammy Awards ceremony, on which winners will be revealed, will be televised live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Monday, February 15, 8pm EST, on CBS.

Final-round ballots will be mailed to voting members of The Recording Academy on December 16, and are due back to the accounting firm of Deloitte for tabulating by January 15, 2016.

Find NEC's past Grammy winners.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin, a member of NEC's jazz faculty, is nominated for Best Improvised Jazz Solo with his work on the track "Arbiters of Evolution," found on the Maria Schneider Orchestra's The Thompson Fields.

McCaslin has worked with the Schneider orchestra for many years, having previously spent time with NEC jazz studies chair Ken Schaphorst's Big Band.

Previously nominated for the album Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans, producer and conductor Ryan Truesdell '06 M.M. is back with the Gil Evans Project's Lines of Color, nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. This project, which follows up on the previously nominated recording, was cut live at New York's Jazz Standard in May 2014. Truesdell continues to reveal previously unrecorded music and previously unheard sections; he is the first person outside of the Evans family to be granted full access to his musical archives.

Truesdell says:

I'm extremely proud of this album as I feel it captures all of the passion and hard work that everyone has put into this project, and showcases just how far this project has come in a relatively short time.

Other NEC performers on this project include faculty member Donny McCaslin on tenor saxophone, flute, and clarinet; Brian Landrus '07 M.M. on baritone saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet; Marcus Rojas '95 on tuba; and vocalist Wendy Gilles '06 M.M.

Like its predecessor, and like Donny McCaslin's nominated recording with Maria Schneider, this project was produced through ArtistShare, which began in 2003 as the Internet's first fan funding platform for artists.

Miguel Zenón of the jazz faculty is nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album with Identities Are Changeable. This project is well known to Boston audiences, since Zenón brought the complete work to NEC's Jordan Hall in February 2013.

Moving to the classical categories, two orchestras with deep ties to NEC appear among the nominations.

More than half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's players are NEC faculty and/or alumni. The BSO and music director Andris Nelsons are nominated for Best Orchestra Performance with Shostakovich: Under Stalin's Shadow—Symphony No. 10. This is the first release in a series of live recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. More on this

Boston Modern Orchestra Project has been NEC's affiliate orchestra for new music since shortly after its founding in 1996. More on this

As with the BSO, NEC musicians make up a substantial portion of BMOP's roster. BMOP Artistic Director Gil Rose worked with NEC singers this fall on workshops productions of the Ouroboros Trilogy, and conducted Menotti's The Consul with NEC singers and orchestra in 2014. Listen

Released on a BMOP/Sound recording, Andrew Norman's Play is nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. NEC brings Norman's music to Symphony Hall on April 27, when his Drip Blip Sparkle Spin Glint Glide Glow Float Flop Chop Pop Shatter Splash leads off Hugh Wolff's program with the NEC Philharmonia. More on this

For further information, check the Grammy website.
To learn about past NEC Grammy winners, check our website.
Find more about the NEC-BSO connection here.