MTSU alumnus Torrance Esmond, left, and Beverly Keel, chair of the Department of Recording Industry, react to a student’s question during Esmond’s return visit to campus March 3. (MTSU photo by Andy Heidt)
MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry has two more alumni Grammy nods to add to its already impressive list.
Torrance Esmond, who’s known professionally as “Street Symphony,” received his sixth Grammy nomination and third as a producer of the Children’s Album Of The Year nominee Rise Shine #Woke by the Alphabet Rockers. Esmond, a 2003 music business graduate currently based in Atlanta, first gained recognition for his production work on the single “Work Hard, Play Hard” by the artist Yo Gotti in 2005. He won the 2013 Grammy for Best Gospel Album as the executive producer for former MTSU student Lecrae’s album Gravity.
Esmond formed a production company Track or Die in 2014 and has produced for Don Trip, Starlito and Gf-nominated rapper 2 Chainz. Esmond established the “Street Symphony Scholarship” for MTSU Recording Industry students in 2015.
MTSU 2009 alumna Laura Rogers (left) and Lydia Rogers, real-life sisters, make up the Grammy-nominated duo The Secret Sisters.
The Secret Sisters, Laura and Lydia Rogers, who hail from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, received their first Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album for their third album, You Don’t Own Me Anymore. The record was produced by Brandi Carlile and recorded at her Bear Creek Studio in Seattle. Laura Rogers, one half of the traditional-country harmony duo, is a 2009 MTSU Music Business alumna. The duo performed songs from their Grammy-nominated album at the WMOT Roots Radio Birthday Bash at AMERICANAFEST 2017 in September. Watch the Secret Sisters perform at AMERICANAFEST 2017 here.
Twenty MTSU alumni or former students and faculty from around the university have been nominated for Grammy Awards in the last six years. Nine have won Grammys so far, including some repeat recipients, in categories from classical to gospel to bluegrass.
The Grammy Awards are Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, on CBS.
The Leading Edge 
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