Grammy-Winning Educator Credits Her Students for the Award

Photograph: Jean_Nelson/Depositphotos

The Grammys rejoice the ideal in tunes but, behind each and every songwriter, performer, and producer that will make it to that phase are new music academics and educators who motivated their craft and confirmed them the ropes, at times from a pretty younger age. Which is why the Grammy Awards also fingers out a New music Educator Award, which acknowledges all those who have created a “significant contribution and show a motivation to tunes education and learning.”

This calendar year, the award went to Annie Ray, the executing arts office chair and orchestra director at Annandale Higher College in Fairfax County, Virginia—a group with numerous refugees and immigrants. With the development of the Crescendo Orchestra, she will work to make songs available to all learners, particularly all those with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. On top of that, she produced a guardian orchestra, in which 200 caregivers learn to enjoy the very same instrument as their child every calendar year.

Ray took house both of those a $10,000 prize and a matching grant for her school’s tunes system. In an interview with NPR adhering to the Merit Award ceremony, Ray credited her pupils for this recognition. “This is the students’ award,” she claimed. “I’m just blessed adequate to have been a component of their journey and their procedure and to have been taught by them.”

The educator also acquired to show up at the primary Grammy ceremony, the place musicians and other stars approached Ray to commend her attempts. “I received to discuss with Meryl Streep for a second, and she instructed me that a music educator changed her daily life,” Ray explained. “And that was actually touching, since if I could alter and just contact one student’s daily life, I have accomplished what I wanted to do.” Singer SZA even crashed her backstage interview to deal with Ray’s students, pleading, “Stay in university and pay attention to every thing she states.”

Now, Ray will use the prize funds to obtain instruments—something the school had struggled to do. “We’ve been making an attempt to increase cash all calendar year for new cellos. And I was like, ‘Well, issue solved.’” After all, the orchestra not only introduces them to an instrument, but also helps college students build their collaboration skills. She also strategies to build an ongoing scholarship for students who want to develop into musicians and music educators when they graduate.

For Ray, the minute seems to be entire circle, considering the fact that it was a new music instructor who very first adjusted her lifetime at age 5, when she acquired to perform the harp. “That’s why I am the place I am, is for the reason that a trainer modified my daily life and built me want to be a songs educator,” she reported. “It is a tricky occupation, but it is really 1 that is definitely, deeply personalized and gratifying, and there is practically nothing else like it.”

This year, the Grammy’s Music Educator Award went to Virginia-based educator Annie Ray, who performs to make tunes obtainable to all college students, particularly all those with extreme intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The award recognizes those who have designed a “significant contribution and display a motivation to new music education.”

The tunes instructor also got to attend the principal Grammy ceremony, the place musicians and other famous people approached Ray to commend her efforts.

h/t: [NPR]

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