School of Music alumna wins Grammy Award

An alumna of the School of Music at (UNCSA) has won a Grammy Award as part of an ensemble that won best choral performance. The 67th annual Grammy Awards were announced Sunday, Feb. 2.

Alumna Joanna Gates (B.M. ’04), is a member of The Crossing choir, which won a Grammy Award for the album “Ochre” conducted by Donald Nally and featuring music by Ayanna Woods, George Lewis and Caroline Shaw. Gates, who studied voice, has previously won three Grammy Awards with The Crossing, in 2018, 2019 and 2023.

The Crossing / Photo: Facebook, The Crossing

The Crossing / Photo: Facebook, The Crossing

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; Grammy Award-winning conductor and music directorMary Mitchell Campbell; acclaimed tenor René Barbera; Broadway veteran T. Oliver Reid; Lachezar Kostov, associate principal cello of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; New York Philharmonic violinist Lisa Kim; violinist and Beyoncé collaborator Jessica McJunkins; Elizabeth Sobol, president and 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).

February 03, 2025