meta-scriptHello, It's Todd Rundgren | GRAMMY.com
Hello, It's Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren

Photo: Mark Sullivan/WireImage.com

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Hello, It's Todd Rundgren

Producer/songwriter visits the GRAMMY Museum

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

Acclaimed producer/songwriter Todd Rundgren was the featured guest for a recent installment of the GRAMMY Museum's An Evening With series. In an intimate interview setting, Rundgren discussed his musical influences, his tenure in the psychedelic rock band the Nazz and his work as a producer/engineer, among other topics. Following the interview, Rundgren performed a brief set, including "I Don't Want To Tie You Down," from his 1973 solo album A Wizard, A True Star, and "Bang The Drum All Day," from 1983's The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect.

"My very first professional gig was as a blues guitar player when I got out of high school," said Rundgren. "I was playing a mishmash of blues, Beatles and Yardbirds [songs]."

Born in Upper Darby, Pa., Rundgren landed his first professional gig as the guitarist for the Philadelphia-based blues band Woody's Truck Stop. He then formed the Nazz with bassist Carson Von Osten in 1967. A year later, the Nazz released their self-titled debut album featuring 10 songs, a majority of which were penned by Rundgren. Rundgren departed the band to focus on a solo career, releasing his debut album, Runt, under the guise of the band Runt, in 1970. Rundgren earned his renown as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer with 1972's Something/Anything? peaking at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 and featuring the Top 10 hit "Hello It's Me," one of his five songs to crack the Top 40. ("Hello It's Me" was originally recorded on the Nazz's debut album.) In 1974 Rundgren formed the progressive rock band Utopia, a project he continued to record with into the mid-'80s. As a producer, Rundgren's résumé includes work with artists such as Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Grand Funk Railroad, Hall & Oates, and Meat Loaf's 1977 album Bat Out Of Hell, which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and has sold more than 14 million copies.

Released in April, Rundgren's latest solo album, Todd Rundgren's Johnson, is a tribute to the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The album features 12 interpretations of Johnson's songs, including blues classics such as "Sweet Home Chicago," "Love In Vain" and "Crossroad Blues."

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include An Evening With Dave Alvin (Sept. 19), The Drop: Johnny Gil (Sept. 20), Spotlight: Matthew Morrison (Sept. 24), and An Evening With Blind Boys Of Alabama (Sept. 28).

For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.

Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.

The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Returns To Celebrate 50th Anniversary: Inaugural Gala & Concert Taking Place May 21 In Los Angeles
The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame returns to celebrate its 50th anniversary with an inaugural gala and concert taking place Tuesday, May 21, at the NOVO Theater in Los Angeles

Image courtesy of the GRAMMY Museum

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The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Returns To Celebrate 50th Anniversary: Inaugural Gala & Concert Taking Place May 21 In Los Angeles

Following a two-year hiatus, the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame returns to celebrate its 50th anniversary with an inaugural gala and concert on Tuesday, May 21, at the NOVO Theater in Los Angeles. Ten recordings will be newly inducted into the Hall this year.

GRAMMYs/Mar 5, 2024 - 02:00 pm

Following a two-year hiatus, the GRAMMY Museum and Recording Academy are reinstating the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame on its 50th anniversary. The momentous event will be celebrated with an inaugural gala and concert on Tuesday, May 21, at the NOVO Theater in Los Angeles; tickets and performers for the event will be announced at a later date. As part of the return, 10 recordings, including four albums and six singles, will be newly inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame later this year.

The GRAMMY Hall Of Fame was established by the Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of the recording arts with final ratification by the Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. There are currently 1,152 inducted recordings in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. View the full list GRAMMY Hall Of Fame past inductees.

This year, the GRAMMY Museum’s GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Gala will be the first of what will become an annual event, and includes a red carpet and VIP reception on the newly opened Ray Charles Terrace at the GRAMMY Museum, followed by a one-of-a-kind concert at the NOVO Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.

The inaugural gala and concert is produced by longtime executive producer of the GRAMMY Awards, Ken Ehrlich, along with Chantel Sausedo and Ron Basile and will feature musical direction by globally renowned producer and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes. For sponsorship opportunities, reach out to halloffame@grammymuseum.org.

Keep watching this space for more exciting news about the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame!

2024 GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominees List

The GRAMMY Museum Celebrates Black History Month 2024 With A Series Of Special Programs And Events

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The GRAMMY Museum Celebrates Black History Month 2024 With A Series Of Special Programs And Events

Throughout February, the GRAMMY Museum will celebrate the profound legacy and impact of Black music with workshops, screenings, and intimate conversations.

GRAMMYs/Feb 9, 2024 - 08:31 pm

The celebration isn't over after the 2024 GRAMMYs. In recognition of Black History Month, the GRAMMY Museum proudly honors the indelible impact of Black music on America and the fabric of global pop culture. 

This programming is a testament to the rich heritage and profound influence of Black artists, whose creativity and resilience have shaped the foundation of American music. Through a series of thoughtfully curated events — including educational workshops, family programs, special screenings, and intimate conversations — the Museum aims to illuminate the vibrant legacy and ongoing evolution of Black music. 

From a workshop on the rhythmic storytelling of hip-hop following its 50th anniversary and the soulful echoes of Bill Withers' classics, to the groundbreaking contributions of James Brown and the visionary reimagination of "The Wiz," these GRAMMY Museum programs encapsulate the enduring legacy and dynamic future of Black music.

The GRAMMY Museum invites audiences to delve into the stories, sounds, and souls that have woven Black music into the tapestry of our shared human experience. Through this journey, the Museum and the Recording Academy honor the artists, visionaries, and pioneers whose talents have forever altered the landscape of music and culture. 

Read on for additional information on the GRAMMY Museum's month-long tribute that explores, appreciates and celebrates the invaluable contributions of Black music to our world.

Thurs., Feb. 8

History of Hip-Hop Education Workshop

WHAT: In celebration of the 50 years of hip-hop, this workshop examines the unique evolution of Hip Hop from its origin to where the genre is today. Highlighting the golden age of Hip Hop, this lesson will provide students with a greater understanding of the struggles and triumphs of the genre.

WHEN: 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 

REGISTER: Click here.

Sat., Feb. 10

Family Time: Grandma’s Hands

WHAT: Join us for a very special family program celebrating the recently released children’s book Grandma’s Hands based on one of Bill Withers’ most beloved songs. Bill’s wife, Marcia, and daughter, Kori, will participate in a book reading, conversation, audience Q&A, and performance, followed by a book signing. The program is free (4 tickets per household.)

WHEN: 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. 

REGISTER: Click here.

Mon., Feb. 12

Celebrating James Brown: Say It Loud

WHAT: The GRAMMY Museum hosts a special evening on the life and music of the late "Godfather of Soul" James Brown. The program features exclusive clips from A&E's forthcoming documentary James Brown: Say It Loud, produced in association with Polygram Entertainment, Mick Jagger’s Jagged Films and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Two One Five Entertainment, followed by a conversation with Director Deborah Riley Draper, superstar Producer Jimmy Jam, and some surprises.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  

REGISTER: Click here.

Sat., Feb. 17

Backstage Pass: "The Wiz"

WHAT: Presented in partnership with the African American Film Critics Association, join us for an afternoon spotlighting the famed Broadway Musical, "The Wiz," with the producers and creative team responsible for the Broadway bound reboot. The program will feature a lively conversation, followed by an audience Q&A in the Museum’s Clive Davis Theater, and will be hosted by AAFCA President, Gil Robertson, and GRAMMY Museum Education & Community Engagement Manager, Schyler O’Neal. The program is free (four tickets per household).

WHEN: 1 p.m.

REGISTER: Click here.

Thurs., Feb. 22

History of Hip-Hop Education Workshop

WHAT: In celebration of the 50 years of hip-hop, this workshop examines the unique evolution of Hip Hop from its origin to where the genre is today. Highlighting the golden age of Hip Hop, this lesson will provide students with a greater understanding of the struggles and triumphs of the genre.

WHEN: 11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 

REGISTER: Click here.

Reel To Reel: A Hip Hop Story

WHAT: In conjunction with the GRAMMY Museum's exhibit, Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit, the GRAMMY Museum is thrilled to host a special screening of A Hip Hop Story with a post-screening conversation featuring Affion Crockett to follow.

WHEN: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  

REGISTER: Click here.

Sun., Feb. 25

Lunar New Year Celebration

WHAT: Join us for a special program celebrating Lunar New Year as we usher in the Year of the Dragon with a performance by the South Coast Chinese Orchestra. The orchestra is from Orange County and uses both traditional Chinese instruments and western string instruments. It is led by Music Director, Jiangli Yu, Conductor, Bin He, and Executive Director, Yulan Chung. The program will take place in the Clive Davis Theater. This program is made possible by the generous support of Preferred Bank. The program is free (four tickets per household).

WHEN: 1:30 p.m.

REGISTER: Click here.

Tues., Feb. 27

A Conversation With Nicole Avant

WHAT: The GRAMMY Museum is thrilled to welcome best-selling author, award-winning film producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Ambassador Nicole Avant to the museum’s intimate 200-seat Clive Davis Theater for a conversation moderated by Jimmy Jam about her new memoir Think You’ll Be Happy – Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace and Gratitude. All ticket buyers will receive a signed copy of the book.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  

REGISTER: Click here.

GRAMMY.com’s 50th Anniversary Of Hip-Hop Coverage: A Recap

Virginia's Annie Ray To Be Honored With 2024 Music Educator Award
Annie Ray

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Virginia's Annie Ray To Be Honored With 2024 Music Educator Award

Presented by the Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Museum, 2024 Music Educator Award recognizes educators who have made a significant contribution and demonstrate a commitment to music education.

GRAMMYs/Feb 1, 2024 - 02:32 pm

Ahead of the 2024 GRAMMYs, Virginia educator Annie Ray will receive the 2024 Music Educator Award during the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards Ceremony on Sat, Feb. 3.  

Ray is both the Orchestra Director and Performing Arts Department Chair at Annandale High School in Virginia's Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) system. She advocates for universal access to quality music education, and has developed creative opportunities to make music accessible to students of all demographics. 

For example, her FCPS Parent Orchestra enables just under 200 caregivers to learn to play their child’s instrument each year. Ray also created the Crescendo Orchestra program to bring the joy of orchestra to high school students with severe developmental or intellectual disabilities. In January 2022,  the program was featured in The Washington Post. 

Based on this work, TEDx reached out and asked Ray to give a talk in April 2022. She has presented at numerous colleges and conferences on the topic and was named the 2023 FCPS Outstanding Secondary Teacher of the Year for her work on equity in education. Ray is also a member of the StringRise professional development team and was a 2023 Wolf Trap Educator Guarantee for the AHS partnership with GRAMMY-nominated artist Christylez Bacon

She currently resides in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband Irving and their girls Eloise and Millie. She is an adventurer at heart, and her biggest bucket list item is to one day win "The Amazing Race."

As the Music Educator Award recipient, Ray will receive a $10,000 honorarium and matching grant for her school's music program. Nine additional finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium and matching grants. The remaining 15 semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants.

The nine semifinalists are:

Meg Byrne: Pleasant Valley High School  Bettendorf, Iowa

Ernesta Chicklowski: Roosevelt Elementary   Tampa, Florida

Michael Coelho: Ipswich Middle and High School Ipswich, Massachusetts

Antoine Dolberry: P.S. 103 Hector Fontanez School  Bronx, New York

Jasmine Fripp: KIPP Nashville Collegiate High School   Nashville, Tennessee

J.D. Frizzell: Briarcrest Christian School  Eads, Tennessee

Coty Raven Morris: Portland State University  Portland, Oregon

Kevin Schoenbach: Oswego High School  Oswego, Illinois

Matthew Shephard: Meridian Early College High School  Sanford, Michigan

The award is open to current U.S. music teachers, and anyone can nominate a teacher — students, parents, friends, colleagues, community members, school deans, and administrators. Teachers are also able to nominate themselves, and nominated teachers are notified and invited to fill out an application. Initial nominations were submitted from all 50 states.

Nominations and applications for the 2025 Music Educator Award are now open via grammymusicteacher.com.

The Music Educator Award program, including honorariums, is made possible by the generosity and support of 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.

How To Watch The 2024 GRAMMYs Live: GRAMMY Nominations, Performers, Air Date, Red Carpet, Streaming Channel & More

GRAMMY Week 2024: At GRAMMY Museum's Student Showcase Finale, High School Students Shred, Sing & Inspire
Honeybee performs at the GRAMMY Museum Student Showcase at the GRAMMY Museum

Photo: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

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GRAMMY Week 2024: At GRAMMY Museum's Student Showcase Finale, High School Students Shred, Sing & Inspire

An eclectic group of performers took to the Clive Davis Theater stage on Jan. 27, wowing audiences with everything from intimate tales of perseverance to all-out rock and 2024 GRAMMYs-related raps.

GRAMMYs/Jan 29, 2024 - 09:53 pm

High school students from throughout Southern California descended upon the GRAMMY Museum on Jan. 27 for a two-hour musical extravaganza. At the inaugural Student Showcase Finale, an eclectic blend of jazz, rock, pop, dance, soul, hip-hop and R&B acts performed for a jam-packed audience inside the Museum's Clive Davis Theater.

It had already been a full day at the GRAMMY Museum by the time Emcee Schyler O’Neal — whose offstage role is GRAMMY Museum’s Manager of Education and Communication — welcomed attendees for the evening showcase. Beginning at 9 a.m., the students were immersed in activities aimed at offering tools for moving forward in the music industry. The students learned about live production and touring, then worked with the GRAMMY Museum’s production team to learn the soundboard and how to communicate with engineers. Each performer also received live feedback from music industry professionals immediately following their rehearsals. 

Each performer during the Student Showcase Finale performed two songs, and opening act Hedy began the night with high energy. The newly formed jazz-fusion band, named after legendary actress Hedy Lamarr, is fronted by the enchanting Lexie Shehab. The four-piece of HP Emerich (piano), Fenella Nishigawara (bass) and Savannah Tweedt (drums) celebrates women in jazz, and delivered a soulful cover of Esperanza Spaulding’s "Precious."

Next up was Dione, a Mexico-born singer/songwriter who told the audience that her song "Se Deja Sentir" allowed her to connect with her Latin roots. Donning a black cowboy hat and silver cowboy boots with tassels, the powerhouse vocalist brought a unique flair to her performance. One of the highlights of her set was a playful dance routine incorporated into her song during an instrumental break. 

Multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Kieler (pronounced Kyler) Avery followed, sharing that she wrote her song, "Living Room," after a six-month bout of writer’s block. It would seem that the excellent song was definitely worth the wait for Avery, who donned an eye-catching bright green outfit as she strummed on an acoustic guitar. 

Reviving the era of barbershop quartets, Spark, entranced the audience with their color-coordinated black and white outfits and engaging cover of Queen’s "Bohemian Rhapsody." Comprised of best friends Ava Winkle, Prajna Krishnamurthy Adiga, Rheyah Gangadharan and Sanjeevani Kumar, Spark also performed synchronized dance moves.

Multi-instrumentalist Sam Sweeney took the stage next for his first-ever live performance. At once compelling and nonchalant, Sam rapped over a blend of jazz, psychedelia and soul instrumentals, which he also produced. His song "Wall Sketches" featured clever rhymes about the 2024 GRAMMYs and bold commentary about the music industry.

It’s not every day that a singer/songwriter co-writes a song with her mother, but that’s exactly what Kayla Pincus did with her mom, Dorothy, a musician and singer who has toured with Barry White and Barry Manilow. Together, they penned "Everything’s Closed," an emotional song performed beautifully by Kayla and her backing band of Eliya Ben-Ezra (guitar), Max Weiner (bass) and Victor Cyrus-Franklin (drums).

Shaking things up with some blistering, melodic hard rock, the high energy trio Honeybee, raised the roof with their thunderous new song "Crashing Down." Lead singer/guitarist Liam Williams, donned an on-brand t-shirt with graphics of a honeycomb and bees, alongside bassist Theo O’Gara and drummer Vinnie Naccarato.

Multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter Iris Le took the stage next for a softer but equally powerful performance. Before launching into a gorgeous, goosebumps-inducing performance of "Could I," Iris bravely shared that they wrote the song during a period in which they were struggling with mental health and self-esteem issues.

Zharia Armel, who has coined herself the "Pop Princess of Compton," promptly took ownership of the stage following Iris Le. Zharia offered a sassy, soulful delivery of her catchy hip-hop, pop and R&B-infused song "Friends" while also moving alongside her energetic backup dancers Asenath Alexander and Zoe Miller. 

Next, singer/songwriter Maya Ixta Delgado told the audience she was proud to be in touch with her cultural heritage and singing "Time," a bilingual English and Spanish song. Maya shared how the song was inspired her elementary school experience in Texas where she was told that she was only permitted to speak in English. She was accompanied for her stirring performance by musicians Daniel Jimenez Alfanador (guitar), and Noah Unterberger (drums). Justin Tinucci (bass) joined in for her second song.

The final performance of the night was Latina punk rock trio What Can I Say, comprised of Krista Warner, Sophia Zavala, and Natalia Luevanos. The group closed the evening with a potent display of Latina girl boss power with their sassy, dynamic song "Jane Bond," which left the audience shaken, not stirred, in the best way possible.

After the performances, GRAMMY in The Schools Director Julie Mutnansky thanked everyone for attending and to express the GRAMMY Museum’s enthusiasm for this new program which allows students to showcase their music. 

GRAMMY Museum Announces 2024 GRAMMY Week Programming Schedule