CSU Coordinator of Piano Proficiency and Special Assistant Professor Denise Favela Apodaca has been announced as a quarterfinalist for the 2017 Music Educator Award™ presented by The Recording Academy® and the GRAMMY Foundation®. More than 3,300 nominations were received with 290 music teachers from 264 cities across 41 states still in the running for the fourth annual award.

The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators (kindergarten through college, public and private schools) who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools. A joint partnership and presentation of The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation, the recipient will be honored during GRAMMY® Week 2017. Semi-finalists will be announced in Sept.

The 2017 recipient will also attend the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards ceremony in Feb. and a range of GRAMMY Foundation events. The nine additional finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants. Fifteen semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants. The honorariums and grants provided to the finalists and schools are made possible through the support of the GRAMMY Foundation’s Education Champions Converse, Disney Performing Arts, Ford Motor Company Fund, and Journeys. In addition, the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, the NAMM Foundation, and the National Education Association support this program through outreach to their constituencies.

It has been an exciting year so far for Favela Apodaca who was recently received a 2016 Best Teacher Award from the CSU Alumni Association. Read more.