CCM faculty and alumni nominated for 2025 Grammy Awards

This year, six UC College-Conservatory of Music alumni and one current faculty member are among the nominees named for the Grammy Awards, which will be held in February of 2025. Presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the 67th Annual Grammy Awards honor recordings released during the eligibility year of Sept. 16, 2023, through Aug. 30, 2024.

Represented across five categories, the Bearcats specifically named in the Grammy's published list of nominees include CCM Associate Professor of Voice Elliot Madore along with alumni Shoshana Bean (BFA Musical Theatre '99), Aaron Lazar (MFA Musical Theatre ’00), Kevin McCollum (BFA Musical Theatre ’84, HonDoc ’05), Fotina Naumenko (MM Voice ‘12, DMA Voice ‘18), Jeannette Sorrell (MM Orchestral Conducting att. ‘86-88) and Donald Nally (BM Music Education ‘82).

In addition to the seven Bearcats specifically named in Grammy's list of nominees, an additional eight CCM alumni, one current student and two current faculty members worked on Grammy nominated recordings as detailed below.

Madore is nominated for Best Opera Recording (Grammy Category 88) for Adams: Girls of the Golden West, recorded with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Los Angeles Master Chorale. The New York Times also highlighted Girls of the Golden West earlier this year. In 2016, Madore won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for Ravel: L’Enfant et les sortilèges; Shéhérazade, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

Lazar is nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album (Grammy Category 36) for Impossible Dream, a collaborative album featuring Lazar with a number of his Broadway collaborators, including fellow CCM alumni Shoshana Bean and Christy Altomare, as well as Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara, Leslie Odom, Jr., Norm Lewis, Loren Allred, the voice of the late Rebecca Luker (the Broadway actress who passed away from ALS), the Grammy-winning National Children's Chorus, the Broadway Inspirational Voices, and more. The album was released after Lazar's announcement that he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The collaborative record is raising funds for the ALS Network, which previously honored Lazar for his advocacy.

Bean is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album (Grammy Category 38) for her role as a principal vocalist on the Original Broadway Cast recording of Hell's Kitchen. She also received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Jersey in that musical. The Hell's Kitchen album has an additional CCM connection, as recent graduate Nolan Monigold (BM Commercial Music Production '21) is a participating Grammy nominee for his work as assistant mixing engineer on that cast recording.

McCollum is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for the Original Broadway Cast recording of The Notebook, which McCollum produced. Notably, that album also features CCM alumnus Dorian Harewood, who was also nominated for a Tony Award this year for his role as Older Noah in The Notebook.

Another one of this year's nominees for Best Musical Theater Album—the 2024 Broadway cast recording of The Wiz—features CCM graduate Phillip Johnson Richardson (BFA Musical Theatre '18) as the Tinman.

Naumenko is nominated for several projects: her album Newman: Bespoke Songs is nominated for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album (Grammy Category 92), and she is also nominated as a soloist for Sheehan: Akathist (Best Choral Performance) and as a member of the Skylark Vocal Ensemble for Clear Voices in the Dark (Best Choral Performance).

For Bespoke Songs, Naumenko commissioned four composers to write works setting texts by female poets. Two of that album's four featured composers are also CCM graduates: Jennifer Jolley (MM Composition '09, DMA Composition '12) and Carrie Magin (MM Composition '11, DMA Composition '13).

Both Nally and Sorrell are nominated in the Best Choral Performance category (Grammy Category 89). Sorrell served as the conductor for Handel: Israel in Egypt, recorded with her ensemble Apollo’s Fire and Apollo’s Singers. Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire won the Grammy for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2019, alongside tenor Karim Sulayman.

Nally led his ensemble, the professional chamber choir known as The Crossing, on their album Ochre. Ochre represents Nally and The Crossing’s tenth Grammy nomination in nine consecutive years—setting a record in the Best Choral Performance category. The group previously won the award in 2023, 2019 and 2018. The Crossing also includes fellow CCM alum Michael Jones (BM Jazz Studies '12), who is a longtime member of the choral ensemble.

Bright Shiny Things, a record label founded by CCM alumnus Louis Levitt (BM Double Bass '01, AD Double Bass '05), received nominations in five separate Grammy categories. The label’s release of Benedict Sheehan’s oratorio Akathist – featuring the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Artefact Ensemble and NOVUS NY – was nominated for Best Choral Performance (Grammy Category 89). The album American Counterpoints was nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo (Grammy Category 91) for Experimental Orchestra and violinist Curtis Stewart’s performance of composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; American Counterpoints was also nominated for Best Classical Compendium (Grammy Category 93). The album Are We Dreaming the Same Dream? received a nomination for Best Instrumental Composition (Grammy Category 84) for The Akropolis Reed Quintet, pianist Pascal Le Boeuf and drummer Christian Euman’s performance of Le Boeuf’s composition “Strands.” Finally, the chamber music collective Decoda’s self-titled debut album was nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Grammy Category 94) for the ensemble’s performance of Valerie Coleman’s “Revelry.” Decoda has an additional CCM connection: CCM Assistant Professor of Cello Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is a member of the ensemble.

CCM Professor of Choral Studies Joe Miller is a participating Grammy nominee for his contributions to Maestro: Music By Leonard Bernstein, which is the soundtrack to the 2023 film Maestro directed by and starring Bradley Cooper. The album is nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Grammy Category 70). Miller prepared the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, which was then conducted by Cooper for a sequence in the film. Current CCM doctoral student Sergey Tkachenko was also featured in the film and its soundtrack as a member of that choir.

CCM graduate Nathan Phillips (BFA Electronic Media '19) is also a participating Grammy nominee for his work mixing the song "Picture You" on Chappell Roan's album The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, which is nominated for Album of the Year (Grammy Category 2) and Best Pop Vocal Album (Grammy Category 9). In 2020 Phillips engineered Omar Apollo’s critically acclaimed album, Ivory, which earned Apollo his first Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The album includes the Platinum single “Evergreen,” which Phillips engineered, vocal produced and mixed.

The 67th Grammy Awards will air live from Los Angeles on February 2, 2025.

Notice an omission in our round up of the 67th Grammy Award nominees? Please send any omissions to ccmpr@uc.edu and we will update our coverage!

Featured image at top: Grammy Award trophies are seen in the press room during the 64th Annual Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. Photo/Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images