'I am ecstatic': Portland State professor named semifinalist for GRAMMY Award

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – For the second year in a row, a Portland State University choir professor has been named a semifinalist for a GRAMMY educator award.

Coty Raven Morris, PSU’s Hinckley assistant professor of choir, music education, and social justice, was one of 25 teachers selected as semifinalists for the GRAMMY 2025 Music Educator Award. The initial pool included more than 2,400 nominees from across the United States.

The award honors music teachers 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,” according to the GRAMMY announcement.

“I am ecstatic to celebrate this recognition with my community here at Portland State, my family on the East Coast, and my peers and colleagues in the South,” Morris said. “This honor, together with my students’ dedication to the arts as a catalyst to change, has been a motivator and has only raised the bar for our expectations of ourselves and the music we make.”

At PSU, Morris leads the Rose and Thorn Choirs and is praised by the university for her “uplifting” mentorship of students and for creating a community for people of all backgrounds to thrive as musicians and leaders.

In a press release from PSU, one of Morris’ students said, “Not only was joy at the center of the classroom and music making, but it was also a place you could show up as yourself and that would be okay, and more than that, it would be accepted and loved and praised.”

“It’s very clear that she believes that she is not the only teacher in the room, and she pours her heart into giving us all the things we need to be successful and comfortable and proud of ourselves,” another student said.

Alongside her teaching, Morris founded Being Human Together, an organization that uses music education to normalize challenging topics, including mental health, oppression, and diversity.

She also launched an initiative bringing together people from all backgrounds to participate in community choir events that are open to anyone who wants to join.

Finalists for the educator award will be announced in December 2024, and the final recipient will be recognized in January during the 67^th GRAMMY Awards events in Los Angeles.

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Michaela Bourgeois

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