North Texas Daily

Alumni from the UNT College of Music won in three categories at the 59th Grammy Awards Sunday night, chief among them is Snarky Puppy who now have three Grammys.

Country singer Maren Morris took home a Grammy for Best Solo Country Performance. The Arlington native is about to go on a summer tour with Sam Hunt.

Snarky Puppy, which consists of multiple UNT alumni, took home best Contemporary Instrumental Album, making this their third Grammy win. Previous wins from Snarky Puppy include Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance in 2014 and Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016.

Michael Daugherty took home three awards, for Contemporary Classical, Classical Instrumental Solo and Classical Compendium. The 1976 graduate used to play in the Two o’Clock Lab Band.

Opera singer Patricia Racette had vocals in “Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles,” which won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album (Classical). Racette was also in the group that won Best Opera Recording. After she graduated high school in 1993 and came to UNT to study jazz, she was told her voice was better for opera.

The Tyler Summers Trio played alto and tenor saxophone on Kirk Franklin’s Grammy winning Best Gospel Album. This trio formed at UNT in 1999 when they all met playing in the One o’Clock Lab Band.

Others who received Grammy nominations or worked on projects that received Grammy nominations include:

• UNT alumnus Andrew Savage from the band Parquet Courts which was nominated for Best Recording Package
• UNT alumna Carmen Cusack, who was the principal soloist on the “Bright Star” album which was nominated for the Best Musical Theater Album
• UNT alumni Dave Pietro and Rob Wilkerson, who are members of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society which was nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for “Real Enemies”
• UNT alumni James Blackwell and  Chad Willis, who performed with Bob Mintzer who was nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble for “All L.A. Band”
• UNT alumnus Ray Brinker from the Tierney Sutton Band which was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album for “The Sting Variations”
• UNT College of Music faculty member Joseph Banowetz who played piano on “Friedman: Original Piano Compositions” which was nominated for Producer of the Year (Classical)

Featured Image: Snarky Puppy. Wikimedia Commons