Nick Lenio, the band director at Basalt middle and high schools, is one of 290 teachers nationwide being considered for the Music Educator Award, presented by The Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation. He is one of two teachers in Colorado in that group.
"Nick has worked so hard and brings his passion and enthusiasm for music into the classroom," said BMS principal Jennifer Ellsperman, in a press release. "When you talk to kids and parents about the band program, you hear about how fun band is and how much they're learning.”
Lenio said that there isn’t much that will change should he win the award.
“There isn’t anything too specific that we’d be able to do that we couldn’t do before, other than say that we’re a Grammy award-winning band program,” said Lenio. “People know that name and know that award, so it means something.”
And although it is his name that would be on the award, Lenio said in an interview last week that it is more indicative of what the program and his students are doing, rather than what he is doing.
“It’s really about the whole picture,” he said.