BRUIN GRAMMY NOMINATIONS! Congratulations to faculty and alums of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music who have been nominated for a 2026 Grammy Award.
Music Industry faculty member Erik Madrid was the recording engineer for an album nominated in two categories: Best R& B Album for Ledisi’s “The Crown” and Best Traditional R&B Performance for her song “Love You Too.”
Ethnomusicology alumna Este Haim was nominated for Best Rock Album with I Quit.
Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz alumnus Michael Mayo was nominated in two categories. His album Fly was nominated for “Best Jazz Vocal Album,” and his song “Four” was nominated for “Best Jazz Performance.”
Music alum Alexander Lloyd Blake is the founder and artistic director of Tonality, nominated in the category of Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album for their multiple appearances on the album Nomadica by Carla Patullo.
In the Best Opera Recording category, we have two alumni nominated: Jake Heggie‘s opera “Intelligence,” recorded by the Houston Grand Opera and Brian Vu, the featured tenor soloist on the opera “Huang Ruo: An American Soldier,” recorded by the American Composers Orchestra.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic was nominated in three categories: Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Compendium for Gabriela Ortiz’s “Yanga” and Best Classical Composition for Ortiz’s “Dzonot.” Congrats to our faculty on the recording: Boris Allakhverdyan (principal clarinet), Chris Hanulik (principal bass), Ben Hong (associate principal cello), Varty Manouelian (violin), James Miller (associate principal trombone), and alumni David Riccobono (assistant principal timpanist and section percussionist) and KT Somero (LA Phil Librarian).