Lionel Hampton School of Music Becomes GRAMMY Museum Affiliate

The Lionel Hampton School of Music became a GRAMMY Museum Affiliate early this year. This makes the University of Idaho one of only sixteen GRAMMY Museum University Affiliates across the country, and the second University Affiliate in the northwest. The GRAMMY Museum’s University Affiliate program provides educational institutions with access to the rich musical history and archives of the GRAMMY Museum for educational purposes.

“There are many possibilities, including student internships, faculty collaborations, access to exhibits and guest speakers, collection exchanges and new granting possibilities,” Vanessa Sielert, director of the Lionel Hampton School of Music, said. “The GRAMMY Museum’s network is quite broad, and the new connections that become available to us as an affiliate are many.”

Sielert first became aware of the opportunity to apply for the program through Clinical Assistant Professor of Music Education, Lori Conlon Khan.

Before moving to U of I two years ago, Conlon Khan taught in the Boise area for 30 years. She first became aware of the GRAMMY Affiliate program through Bob Santelli, who she met while participating in the American Roots Music Summer Institute hosted by the Idaho Humanities Council. Santelli served as the executive director of the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2016, and is now the university director of popular music and performing arts at Oregon State University.

Santelli formally presented Sielert with a GRAMMY Museum Affiliate plaque at Hamp’s Gala, the event that kicked-off the start of the 2019 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival on Thursday, Feb. 21.

Conlon Khan said, “It’s a really wonderful networking opportunity to us, especially since we’re rather isolated and not too close to a major metropolitan area. It can be that hook, where our students can go ‘oh, I can be in contact with someone in LA or in Cleveland.’”

At this stage, Conlon Khan said U of I has the chance to make the program fit student and university needs. She said, “As we go along, we get to figure out just what it means to us.”

Sielert is preparing for a trip to Los Angeles next month for her first GRAMMY Affiliate meeting, where she hopes to learn more about how the university can best take advantage of this new affiliation.

Story written by Corrin Bond
Published March 2019