Berklee Faculty Among Grammy Music Educator Award Quarterfinalists

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) named Berklee ensemble professor and 1995 alumnus Jetro da Silva and songwriting professor James Kachulis to the list of 217 quarterfinalists for the first-ever Music Educator Award presented by NARAS and the Grammy Foundation. The list of quarterfinalists was whittled down from more than 30,000 initial nominations.

The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators from the kindergarten through the collegiate level who are making a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools. The award’s inaugural presentation will take place at the Special Merit Awards ceremony and nominees’ reception during Grammy Week 2014.

Selected from 10 finalists, the award recipient will be flown to Los Angeles to accept the honor in person, attend the Grammy Awards ceremony, and receive a $10,000 honorarium. Each of the nine finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium and each of their schools will receive matching grants.

As of the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013, Berklee alumni and faculty have been honored with a total of 231 Grammy Awards in various categories and fields, from songwriting and performance to production and engineering.

Liz Lupton is a publicist at Berklee College of Music. She can be reached at llupton@berklee.edu.