Awards and Distinctions
Winner New England Music Awards - Jazz Act of the Year 2013
Winner NATIONAL Jazz Act Of The Year in 2012 Phoenix "Best Music Poll"
"Top Ten College Women 2011", Award, Glamour Magazine’s 54th annual competition
- Named four times in the annual Downbeat Magazines 2009, 2010 and 2011, 2012 Critics Poll as one of the Alto Saxophone "Rising Star” (Youngest Ever named to critics poll)
- Recipient of the ASCAP Foundation 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 Young Jazz Composers Award
- Voted "Best Jazz Act” in Boston four consecutive years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 FNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll
- "Outstanding Jazz Act of the Year" 2008 and 2010 Boston Music Awards
- Winner Jimmy Woode Award Saxophone Soloist, Tuscia in Jazz Italy
- Finalist 2009 Jazz A Juan Revelations, Les Pins, France
- Finalist 2009 ISC International Songwriting Contest "But Life Goes On"
- First ever recipient of the "Brad Delp Rising Star Award” - 2009 Limelight Magazine Music Awards
- Recipient of the 2008 Francis B. Lanier Award NEC Prep School (Youngest ever and first non-classical musician to receive the award.)
- Performed winning composition "Every Road I Walked” at the 2007 ASCAP Foundation Annual Awards in New York.
- 2006-2009 Winner of twelve (12) Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards. Jazz Soloist, Jazz Vocalist, Pop/Rock Blues Soloist, Composition, Extended Composition, Arrangement
- Recipient of the Berklee College of Music Superior Musicianship Award
at 2007 Berklee High School Jazz Festival
- Grace Kelly was the youngest ever winner of Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship at the 2006 East Coast Jazz Festival.
- Winner of International Songwriting Competition ISC 2008 for her composition "101”
- Winner of two International Songwriting Competitions in 2006 & 2007 for her composition "Filosophical Flying Fish” (Every Road I Walked)
- Grace Kelly was judged the top woodwind soloist and the top vocal alto soloist at the 2007 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival
- 2008 Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble
- 2007 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead at the Kennedy Center in Wash. D.C.
- 2007 Steans Institute at Ravinia,
- 2006, 2007 and 2008 Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony,
- 2006, 2007 and 2008 Stanford Jazz Residency Program.
Notables
Grace Kelly has already recorded and/or performed with many notable musicians: Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Dave Brubeck, Hank Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Frank Morgan, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland, Harry Connick, Jr., Huey Lewis, Russell Malone, Rufus Reid, Matt Wilson, Ann Hampton Callaway, Jerry Bergonzi, Terri Lyne Carrington, Dianne Reeves, Chris Potter, Adam Rogers, Christian Scott, Billy Hart, Winard Harper, George Cables, Ronnie Matthews, Ray Drummond, Peter Bernstein, and James Cotton, among others.
Grace appeared as special guest artist for two nights with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops 2007 Jazz Series. One of the selections Grace performed was her award winning composition "Every Road I Walked” which she also arranged for the entire Pops orchestra. It was her first arrangement for an orchestra and strings. Grace also performed with Diane Reeves and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
She has performed in many notable venues in the U.S., Europe and Asia such as Carnegie Hall, Rose Hall at JALC, Birdland, Dizzy’s Club Cocoa Cola, Scullers Jazz Club, Regatta Bar, Dakota Jazz Club, Kennedy Center, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, Blues Alley, Newport Blues Café, Boston Symphony Hall, Jazz Standard, Pabst Theater, 50th Grammy Awards (After party), Jazz Bakery, (LA) Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, (Kennedy Center),. Grace has performed as far away as Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia and Seoul, Korea.
Notable Media Appearances
Media appearances include NPR "Day To Day” , NPR " Here and Now”, NPR "Piano Jazz”, "Chronicle”, WGBH with Eric Jackson, XM Radio, WICN, KSFR, KCSM, ABC’s WCVB-TV,
Sunday Morning with Liz Walker, CBS TV4, Fox 25 News, NECN, EBS Radio and EBS TV and numerous radio interviews. Featured in many magazines and newspapers in U.S., Europe and Asia such as: LA Times, Downbeat, Jazziz, Jazz Times, Jazztitek, Chosun Daily News, Boston Globe, Washington Post, and many others.
Film Credits
Film: "Delta Rising” a Blues Documentary, including Willie Nelson, Morgan Freeman and others. http://www.deltarising.com/
Film: "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench”. Cameo appearance by Grace Kelly.
Film: "Men In Green” An intriguing behind the scenes film documentary with the Boston Celtics Legends hosted by Celtics legend, Satch Sanders
Created by John Ippolito and directed by award winning director, Laura Bernieri (Sundance Film Festival Winner/Next Stop Wonderland) Music and soundtrack composed and performed by Grace Kelly