Congrats to El Camino faculty member Jake Silverman who won a 2022 Grammy Award for an arrangement he made with Charlie Rosen and the 8-Bit Big Band called "Meta Knight's Revenge" based on the 1990s video game Kirby Superstar. The award is just one of several accomplishments from El Camino's music faculty this semester.
Silverman's musical composition won in the "Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella" category and features the original arrangement by Silverman, as part of his "Button Masher" project. In the award-winning work, the 8-Bit Big Band brings a full orchestra to expand the piece, with some blazing horn lines complementing Button Masher's re-harmonizations. Through Button Masher's multimedia work, Silverman brings together video game music, jazz, and other genres.
Another music faculty member was also busy this awards season. Violin/viola applied music instructor Karoline Souza Menezes joined Beyoncé at this year's Oscars in a spectacular performance that opened the show. Menezes also performed during the show with Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O'Connell, offering a live rendition of "No Time to Die" from the 2021 James Bond film of the same name.
In other music news, assistant professor David Moyer recently finished work on the new anthem for Angel City Football Club titled "Running with The Angels," by five-time Grammy winner Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) and Inglewood-based artist Tia P., produced by Grammy-winner Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, "Encanto," Eminem).