Hey there teachers,
If you know and an amazing music teacher (I know many!) then now is a great time to nominate them for the Grammy Music Educator Award. However, the nomination deadline is coming up fast: March 15, 2026. Teachers can still submit their own application through March 31, 2026.
As a past recipient I can speak to the sincerity that the Recording Academy and GRAMMY Museum put into the process. The entire process is built to create positive press and recognition for music teachers.
When I received the award in 2022 I had the opportunity to talk to David Sears, a LA area educator who helped designed the process. He told me that one of the problems in music education is that, despite teachers creating miracles every day in their classrooms, you only see it on the news if something bad happens.
The goal of this process is to use the Grammy name recognition to create positive press for music education. Just being nominated can be an opportunity to bring recognition to a program. However, they specifically create nationwide press releases with hundreds of quarterfinalist, semifinalist, and finalist. Every year the winner is covered by CBS news and participates in the Grammy Telecast in order to put music education in the national spotlight,
You can find some additional information below, but you should just go apply or nominate someone today!
-Stephen T. Cox
Presented by the Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Museum, the award honors current full-time music educators in the United States, from kindergarten through college, who have made a significant and lasting contribution to music education and shown a strong commitment to maintaining music in schools.
One of the especially nice things about this process is that anyone can nominate a teacher. That includes fellow teachers, administrators, Recording Academy members, students, parents, and community members. A nomination only requires the teacher’s name, school, city, and email address, and the nominee is then invited to complete the full application. Teachers are also eligible to apply even if they were not nominated.
The award also comes with meaningful support. The winner receives a $10,000 honorarium along with a matching school grant. Finalists receive $1,000 honorariums, and semifinalists receive $500 honorariums, each also accompanied by matching school grants.
