UNCSA School of Music alumni nominated for Grammy Awards

Two alumni from the School of Music at UNCSA are nominated for 2024 Grammy Awards. The nominations were announced on Friday, Nov. 10.

High School Music alumna Mary-Mitchell Campbell (HS Music '92) is nominated in the best musical theater album category for her role as a producer on “Some Like It Hot.” Campbell is also the music supervisor for the production. This is her first Grammy nomination. She received an honorary doctorate from UNCSA when she returned to speak at commencement in 2019.

Voice alumna Joanna Gates (B.M. Music '04) is nominated as a member of The Crossing, a professional chamber choir, in the best choral performance category for the album “Carols After a Plague,” conducted by Donald Nally. Gates has previously won three Grammy Awards with The Crossing, in 2018, 2019 and 2023.

The 66th annual Grammy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 4, from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on CBS and on the Paramount+ app.

About Mary-Mitchell Campbell

Mary-Mitchell Campbell is a conductor, music director, orchestrator, composer and arranger who crosses genres easily between classical, pop, and Broadway styles of music. She has served as the music director for many Broadway shows including:“Mean Girls,” “The Prom,” “My Love Letter to Broadway” with Kristin Chenoweth, “Tuck Everlasting,” “Finding Neverland,” “Big Fish,” “The Addams Family,” “Company,” and “Sweeney Todd.” She also music directed Stephen Sondheim’s last musical, “Road Show,” at the Public Theater. Campbell won a Drama Desk for Best Orchestrations for the 2006 revival of “Company” starring Raul Esparza and was nominated for best orchestrations for her work on the off-Broadway productions of “Allegro” and “Hello Again.” She has a very active concert career and performs frequently with Kristin Chenoweth, Gavin Creel, Jonathan Groff, Laura Benanti and Raul Esparza. In her pop career, she has worked with Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, John Legend, Amy Grant, Kelly Clarkson, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Elvis Costello, and Josh Groban in concerts.

About The Crossing

Dedicated to new music, The Crossing is committed to working with creative teams to make and record new, substantial works for choir that explore and expand ways of writing for choir, singing in choir, and listening to music for choir. Many of its nearly 170 commissioned premieres address social, environmental and political issues. The choir is based in Philadelphia.

About the School of Music

The School of Music at UNCSA combines intensive individual study under artist faculty with a variety of performance opportunities, presenting more than 200 recitals, concerts and opera productions each year, including collaborations with other UNCSA arts schools and a guest artist series. In addition to its undergraduate and graduate programs, it houses one of the nation’s only four-year residential arts high school programs. The School of Music is also home to the renowned A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, a tuition-free, graduate-level professional training ground for exceptional young vocalists. UNCSA School of Music alumni have gone on to perform with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Nero String Quartet, Giannini Brass, Camel City Jazz Orchestra, and Metropolitan and Chicago Lyric operas, among many others. Prominent alumni include: violist Richard O'Neill, member of the renowned Takács Quartet; acclaimed tenor René Barbera; Broadway veteran T. Oliver Reid; Lachezar Kostov, associate principal cello of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Broadway music director Mary-Mitchell Campbell; New York Philharmonic violinist Lisa Kim; violinist and Beyoncé collaborator Jessica McJunkins; Elizabeth Sobol, president & CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center; jazz vocalist and composer Becca Stevens; saxophonist Eddie Barbash, formerly with the house band for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”; Nia Imani Franklin, composer and Miss America 2019; and the Dan River Girls (Fiona Burdette, cello; Ellie Burdette, double bass and voice; and Jessie Burdette, viola).

Information in this release reflects what could be obtained by press time; updates will be made with additional connections as they are brought to our attention.

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