22 of the 2025 GRAMMY Music Educator Award™ Semifinalists Are NAfME Members

22 of the 2025 GRAMMY Music Educator Award™ Semifinalists Are NAfME Members

Announcing the 25 Selected Semifinalists

The Recording Academy™ and GRAMMY Museum® have announced the 25 semifinalists for the 2024 GRAMMY Music Educator Award™. More than 2,400 initial nominations were submitted from 49 states; semifinalists were selected from 24 cities across 14 states. NAfME is delighted to announce that 22* of the 25 GRAMMY semifinalists are active members of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). NAfME congratulates each of these inspiring, dedicated, and noteworthy music educators.

Presented annually by the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum, the Music Educator Award honors educators who have made a significant and lasting contribution to music education and demonstrate a deep commitment to maintaining music education in schools.

The Music Educator Award is open to current U.S. music teachers. Anyone can nominate a teacher, including students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers can also nominate themselves. All nominated teachers are notified and invited to submit an application.

Nominations for the 2026 Music Educator Award are now open.

Here are this year’s semifinalists. NAfME members are highlighted in bold.

Dr. Damion Womack	The Montgomery Academy	Montgomery	Alabama
Tammy Yi	Chapman University	Orange	California
Cindy Ellis	Miami Arts Studio 6-12 at Zelda Glazer	Miami	Florida
Jennifer Jimenez	South Miami Sr. High School	Miami	Florida
Stefanie Sagaro	Academy for Innovative Education Charter School	Miami Springs	Florida
Bernie Hendricks, Jr.	Ocoee High School	Ocoee	Florida
Michael Antmann	Freedom High School	Orlando	Florida
Shannon Stem	University Academy	Panama City	Florida
Justin Antos	Eisenhower High School	Blue Island	Illinois
Jeremy Bartunek	Greenbriar School	Northbrook	Illinois
Dr. Kevin McDonald	Wellesley High School	Wellesley	Massachusetts
Matthew Shephard	Meridian Early College High School	Sanford	Michigan
Daniel Gutierrez	Nixa High School	Nixa	Missouri
Stephen Blanco	Las Vegas High School	Las Vegas	Nevada
Dr. Alice Tsui	New Bridges Elementary	Brooklyn	New York
Dr. Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan	Parsons Memorial & Purchase Elementary Schools	Harrison	New York
Paul Corn	Susan E. Wagner High School	Staten Island	New York
Erin Althen	Westhill High School	Syracuse	New York
Richard Butler	Jack Britt High School	Fayetteville	North Carolina
Donald Walter	Northwest Guilford Middle School and High School	Greensboro	North Carolina
Katie Silcott	Olentangy Shanahan Middle School	Lewis Center	Ohio
Coty Raven Morris	Portland State University	Portland	Oregon
J.D. Frizzell	Briarcrest Christian School	Eads	Tennessee
Adrian Maclin	Cordova High School	Memphis	Tennessee
Ethan Chessin	Camas High School	Camas	Washington

* This number reflects those whose memberships were current at the time of this announcement and is subject to change.

The 2025 GRAMMY Music Educator Award honoree, selected out of the ten finalists, will receive a $10,000 honorarium and matching grant for their school’s music program, and be recognized during GRAMMY Week 2025. The nine additional finalists will each receive a $1,000 honorarium with matching school grants. Fifteen semifinalists will also receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants. Read a list of the quarterfinalists featuring NAfME members.

The Music Educator Award program, including honorariums, is supported by The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation. In addition, the American Choral Directors Association, National Association for Music Education, NAMM Foundation, and National Education Association support this program through outreach to their constituencies.

Nine of the previous eleven GRAMMY Music Educator honorees, Kent Knappenberger, Jared Cassedy, Phillip Riggs, Keith Hancock, Melissa Salguero, Jeffery Redding, Mickey Smith Jr., Pamela Dawson, and Annie Ray—the 2024 GRAMMY Music Educator Award recipient—are NAfME members. The 2021 GRAMMY Music Educator Award recipient is Jeffrey Murdock, associate professor of music at the University of Arkansas, and the 2022 GRAMMY Music Educator Award recipient is Stephen Cox, band director at Eastland High School in Eastland, Texas.

More information about the GRAMMY Music Educator Award is available here. Nominations for the 2026 Music Educator Award are open for both teachers, students, and the public to nominate a music educator who inspires them. Nominations are due March 15, 2025, and applications are due March 31, 2025. Best wishes to the semifinalists for the 2025 award!