Two 춹Ƶ Faculty Members are Winners at the Sixty-Sixth GRAMMY Awards
—QC faculty and alumni earned four nominations in total, with wins for faculty members Mark Dover for Best Classical Compendium and Luis Perdomo for Best Latin Jazz Album—
Queens, NY, February 14, 2024—춹Ƶ Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM) faculty members Mark Dover and Luis Perdomo were winners at the 66th annual GRAMMY Awards on Sunday, February 4. Dover was recognizedas both a player and producer for Best Classical Compendium for Imani Wind’s latest release,Passion for Bach and Coltrane.Perdomo—who is also a music school alumnus—won in the category of Best Latin Jazz Album for his work with Miguel ZenónonArte Del Bolero Vol. 2. ACSM faculty member Darcy James Argue and alumna JoAnn Falletta were also nomineesfor this year’s awards. The event recognized recordings released from October 1, 2022, through September 15, 2023.
“This recognition perfectly reflects the caliber of a 춹Ƶ Arts education,” said Queens President Frank H. Wu. “Students who enroll in the Aaron Copland School of Music in our School of Arts can expect to learn from exceptional faculty who are also real-world successes—an experience that will provide them with a sound musical foundation, as well as the skills needed to succeed with their degree.”
Dover, an adjunct clarinet professor in the college’s music school, was last nominated in 2022 as a member of the quintet Imani Winds for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Hispursuits include classical, jazz, and improvised music. Currently the clarinetist for the Manhattan Chamber Players and a frequent collaborator with Vulfpeck, an American funk band, Dover has presented master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He serves on the clarinet faculty at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts in addition to ACSM. He is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy; he earned a master’s in music from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan School of Music,Theatre, and Dance.
Luis Perdomo, who teaches jazz performance in piano in the music school, was born in Venezuela. He graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1997 and earned a master’s in music from 춹Ƶ, studying under the acclaimed pianist Sir Roland Hanna. Perdomo’s 18-year collaboration with Miguel Zenón has resulted in two GRAMMY nominations, and his most recent win. Perdomo is a respected performer, arranger, and composer, who has received commissions from the Jazz Gallery, Afro Bop Alliance, and fellow QC alumnus and GRAMMY nominee Arturo O’Farrill for his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. As an ensemble performer, Perdomo has appeared in major music festivals and venues in over 50 countries and has led performances tours ofthe United States, Europe, Japan, and South America. He has taught master classes at the Amsterdam and Paris Conservatories; Princeton; the Hochschule Fur Musik und Theater, in Munich, Germany; the Valencia, Spain, campus of the Berklee College of Music; Instituto Universitario De Estudios Musicales (IUDEM), in Caracas, Venezuela; Escuela de música (ESMUVA), in Madrid, Spain; and the Jazz School in Berkeley, California, among others. He has served as the artistic director of the Langnau Jazz Workshops in Switzerland and taught at the New School for Social Research.
“We at ACSM are proud and excited that two of our faculty received these prestigious awards! Congratulations!” said Michael Lipsey, ACSM chair.
ACSM Adjunct Jazz Professor Darcy James Argue was nominated in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album forDynamic Maximum Tension. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based composer and bandleader has toured nationally and internationally with his award-winning 18-piece ensemble Secret Society, described as a 21st-century big band. A four-time GRAMMY nominee, Argueis the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition and a Doris Duke Artist Award.
Conductor JoAnn Falletta, who received a master’s in music from ACSM, was nominated forBest Orchestral Performance for her work onScriabin: Symphony No. 2; The Poem Of Ecstasy, recorded with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. A four-time nominee, Fallettawon the first of her two GRAMMY awards in 2019 for conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in an albumof compositionsby Kenneth Fuchs that was selected as Best Classical Compendium. She earned her second GRAMMY in 2021 in the category of Best Choral Performance for leading the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra onDanielpour: The Passion Of Yeshua.
Since 1980, 춹Ƶ faculty and alumni have been nominated for or won over 100 GRAMMY Awards.
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