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Virginia music teacher Annie Ray wins 2024 Grammy Music Educator Award
Annie Ray, a music teacher and orchestra leader from Annandale, Virginia, has been named the winner of the 2024 Music Educator Award. The prestigious honor, presented by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Museum, recognizes Ray’s contribution to music education.
Ray, who teaches at Annandale High School, said she encourages her students to strive for excellence and go beyond what they think they can do. She also said she wants students to be vulnerable and make mistakes so that they can get better.
“You have to be very loud and bold and be willing to make bad sounds before you learn how to make good sounds. So in my classroom, they learn confidence because they just have to shed their inhibitions, and just go for it,” Ray said.
And it’s a lesson her students embrace.
“I would say that also applies to any other category of life. You have to start out bad and you have to be working at in order for it to improve,” said Matt, one of Ray’s students.
Those qualities she teaches have significantly impacted her students from diverse backgrounds. Sosan Barakzai, who moved to Annandale from Afghanistan, describes Ray as a friend and mentor who is always available for guidance.
“She’s someone that opens her door of a small office all the time to talk about anything. She’s someone that talks to you as a friend,” said Barakzai.
Ray leads the Crescendo Orchestra, which includes a significant number of special education students from Annandale High’s diverse student body. She tailors her teaching methods to meet the unique needs of these students, including using techniques like color-coded strings and cardboard instruments.
“I knew once I started working with the Crescendo kids, there’s just so much more potential here of what it truly means to meet them where they’re at,” said Ray.
Ray’s impact extends beyond the classroom. Kevin Jaramillo, a former student, is now a collaborator in the Crescendo Orchestra.
Scott Engdahl, Kevin’s godfather and guardian, said it meant a lot to him to see him perform with the orchestra.
“We saw him at a concert for the first time. And it’s … he loves music,” said Engdahl.
As Ray prepares to attend the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, she looks forward to potentially meeting some of her musical heroes, including British singer-songwriter Jacob Collier. Ray shares a personal connection with Collier’s music, particularly the song “Little Blue” that was released before a close friend of hers died.
“That song has been so defining to me,” said Ray.
The Grammys will be broadcast live on CBS and streaming on Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 4, beginning at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Brendan Carr, an Elon Musk-backed critic of big tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling Carr a “warrior for Free Speech” in a statement on Sunday.
Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said in the statement.
Carr said on Musk’s social platform X that he was “humbled and honored” to take on the role of FCC chairman.
“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” he wrote in another post Sunday.
Alex Wong / AP
It is a phrase he has used repeatedly, posting on Friday: “Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” adding that it “must be dismantled.”
Carr was already the senior Republican on the FCC, an independent agency that regulates licenses for television and radio, pricing of home internet, and other communications issues in the United States.
The five-person commission will have a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump will get to appoint a new member, The Associated Press points out, adding that Carr has also been the commission’s general counsel and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times and nominated by both Trump and President Biden to the commission.
Long rumored as a contender for FCC chair, he has built an alliance with billionaire Musk — Trump’s wealthiest backer, whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.
The New York Times reported that Starlink received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC — but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service couldn’t prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes.
Carr “vociferously” opposed the decision, the newspaper reported.
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article last month.
Carr has also publicly agreed with the incoming Trump administration’s promises to slash regulation and punish television networks for what they say is political bias.
Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses.
During the 2024 campaign, he singled out CBS, saying its license should be revoked after its flagship news program “60 Minutes” aired an interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump had declined to sit for a similar interview.
Trump sued CBS News, alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of the 60 Minutes interview of Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him. In a statement, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely without merit” and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
Carr also wrote a chapter on the FCC in the controversial Project 2025 document that purported to lay out a vision for a second Trump administration, in which he also called for the regulation of the largest tech companies, such as Meta, Google and Apple.
The FCC needs to bring new urgency to four main goals: reining in big tech, promoting national security, “unleashing” economic prosperity and ensuring FCC accountability, he wrote in the document by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Carr was a strong foe of the FCC’s reinstatement in April of landmark net neutrality rules that were repealed during the first Trump administration, the Reuters news agency notes. The Biden FCC rules were in turn put on hold by a federal appeals court.
Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in two separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests.
Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30 p.m. on an avenue in the city’s St. Roch neighborhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth wounded person arrived at a hospital via a private car.
CBS New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV reports that, according to investigators, ballistics showed that two shooters were involved.
About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as revelers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, just over half a mile (.8 km) to the north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and was in stable condition, police said.
No arrests were announced and no suspect information was released.
The St. Roch neighborhood is several blocks northeast of the city’s French Quarter that is popular with tourists.
The Almonaster Bridge was closed in both directions during the investigation.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said detectives didn’t immediately know if the incidents were related.
“They were … different kinds of approaches,” she said of the shootings, which occurred in the area where a “second line,” a celebration following a parade, was taking place.
Thousands had gathered for the annual outing of the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club in the 9th Ward, organizer Oscar Brown told NOLA.com.
“It is a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful event,” Kirkpatrick said.
It was the second major shooting in the South since gunfire marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Nov. 10, leaving one person dead and injuring 16 others, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said.
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