College and Alumni Earn A number of 2026 Grammy Nods

BRUIN GRAMMY NOMINATIONS! Congratulations to school and alums of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music who’ve been nominated for a 2026 Grammy Award. 

Music Industry college member Erik Madrid was the recording engineer for an album nominated in two classes: Best R& B Album for Ledisi’s “The Crown” and Best Traditional R&B Performance for her music “Love You Too.” 

Ethnomusicology alumna Este Haim was nominated for Best Rock Album with “I Quit.”

In the Best Opera Recording class, we’ve two alumni nominated: Jake Heggie’s opera “Intelligence,” recorded by the Houston Grand Opera and Brian Vu, the featured tenor soloist on the opera “Huang Ruo: An American Soldier,” recorded by the American Composers Orchestra. 

The Los Angeles Philharmonic was nominated in three classes: Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Compendium for Gabriela Ortiz’s “Yanga” and Best Classical Composition for Ortiz’s “Dzonot.” Congrats to our college on the recording: Boris Allakhverdyan (principal clarinet), Chris Hanulik (principal bass), Ben Hong (affiliate principal cello), Varty Manouelian (violin), James Miller (affiliate principal trombone), and alumnus David Riccobono (assistant principal timpanist and part percussionist).