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College of Music Alums Nominated for 2021 GRAMMY Awards

Three 2021 Grammy Awards nominees have strong ties to the College of Music at Florida State University:

Choral conductor Adam Luebke, who earned his Ph.D. in Choral Conducting at FSU in 2010, is nominated for Best Choral Performance for his recording of Richard Danielpour’s dramatic oratorio, Passion of Yeshua. Dr. Luebke, who directs the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, central to the recording, is also an Assistant Professor of Voice and Choral Conducting at the State University of New York-Fredonia.

Orlando native Mykal Kilgore attended the College of Music and now works in Nashville, Tennessee as a singer and songwriter following time in New York as featured performer on Broadway in Motown the MusicalThe Wiz Live!, and Hair. His single “Let Me Go,” the first release from his 2019 debut album Man Born Black, is nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance. The album, produced by fellow College of Music Alum and 2016 Grammy nominee Jamison Ross (B.A. ’10), was also nominated for the NAACP Image Awards Outstanding New Artist. “I tried to write songs that helped express the truth of myself – the pretty and the ugly. I wanted people to see a whole human being, not a stereotype or a picture-perfect image – something true to myself. I wanted to speak about the world that I actually live in,” said Kilgore.

Carlisle Floyd, often referred to as “The Father of American Opera” received a Grammy nomination for his latest opera, The Prince of Players (based on the life of 17th-century English actor Edward Kynaston), for which Floyd wrote the music and the libretto. Floyd served on the music faculty at FSU for 30 years teaching composition and piano while also premiering compositions including operas like Susannah, first premiered on campus in 1955 and now a celebrated part of the opera catalogue. Still active at age 94, the venerated composer’s many accolades include an honorary doctorate from FSU, An Opera Honoree for Lifetime Work from The National Endowment for the Arts, and the 2004 National Medal of Arts from the George W. Bush White House. (Read an interview with Floyd on WFSU.org.) Photo: Daniel Tchetchik


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