Alumni Gazette: In the News

GRAMMY GREAT: Bassist Ron Carter received the third Grammy Award of his career for his most recent album. (Photo: Seda Ozguven)

Jazz Legend Earns Third Grammy

Renowned bassist Ron Carter ’59E received the third Grammy Award of his storied career this spring.

Carter, Jack DeJohnette, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba were recognized for the album Skyline, which took the honors for Best Jazz Instrumental Album at the annual ceremony of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in April.

Appearing on more than 2,200 recordings, Carter is one of the most acclaimed musicians of his generation. Among his many awards, he holds six honorary degrees from universities and colleges, including Rochester, which awarded him a doctor of music degree in 2010.

Also at this spring’s Grammy Awards, the academy recognized the recording Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand,” a choral work by Gustav Mahler under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Earning honors for Best Choral Performance, the recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic featured Erin Morley ’02E as a soprano soloist.

Alumna Named President at Framingham State University

Nancy Peckham Niemi ’84, ’01W (PhD) becomes the president of Framingham State University this summer.

Niemi, who is currently the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, will begin her tenure as president on July 1.

Founded in 1839 as the nation’s first public university for the education of teachers, the Massachusetts institution is now a liberal arts university with more than 6,000 students.

World Premiere Opera Features Eastman Award Winners

The world premiere production of an opera by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts ’94E, ’99E (DMA) is scheduled for this fall’s season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

The November production of The Hours features Grammy Award–winning soprano Renée Fleming ’83E (MM), who will be joined by Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato as the opera’s trio of women whose overlapping stories connect to those of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway.

The opera is adapted from Michael Cunningham’s Woolf-inspired novel, which was turned into an Academy Award–winning film starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore.