Wes McRae | Atlanta, GA – November 26, 2025

Two albums nominated for the 2026 Grammys feature compositions from Brittney Boykin, assistant professor and Director of Choral Activities in the School of Music, thanks to passion and persistence.

"I didn't dream this at all! Composition has always just been a hobby for me," said Boykin. "People ask me all the time, 'did you ever see this for yourself?' No, I just knew that I loved music; I loved creating things."

"But if you let your passion and love for something guide you, it can take you places you never imagined, like two Grammy-nominated albums."

Boykin's compositions appear on two albums nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, Black Pierrot with Sidney Outlaw and Warren Jones, and In this Short Life, with Devony Smith and Danny Zelibor. 

"Devony's album borrows three songs from a larger song cycle, Moments in Sonder, which is a collection of fourteen songs, all poetry by Maya Angelou," Boykin said. "The cycle explores the human experience, the idea of traveling through life. How are we all connected as humans, what are the things that connect us? Those are emotions, our concept of time, how we grow old, and how we interact with each other on a daily basis."

"The collaboration for Black Pierrot is a little different, because Sidney included an entire song cycle that was commissioned by Merola Opera, a young artist program based in San Francisco. He was a part of that commission process," Boykin continued.

Boykin's seven-song cycle, 26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man, joins a 1945 song cycle from William Grant Still on the album. "This isn’t just music — it’s a movement," said Outlaw. "Boykin’s work speaks to the soul of our time, while Still’s cycle echoes struggles still present eight decades later. Together, they form a dialogue across generations."

For 26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man, Boykin examines 26 poems from Harlem Renaissance poet Raymond Patterson and distilled them into seven larger themes, forming a song around each theme. "Those seven songs explore emotions, spirituality, vulnerability, and love, things that everyone experiences, but specifically tailored to the black man experience."

"I'm always so grateful that I can do both professional work outside of Georgia Tech and be in the classroom," Boykin said. "Georgia Tech has some of the best and brightest students in the world. They're able to bring that kind of brilliance into the rehearsal space."

"I always include the students' majors on the choir performance programs, because I want people to see that we don't have performance majors. These are aeronautical engineers, biology majors, you name it, but they're creatives at heart as well."

Musical programs at Tech can have a lifetime impact, Boykin said. "When students who've been in choir graduate and say they're still singing, wherever they end up, I think that speaks directly to Georgia Tech's mission of improving the human condition."

Boykin has a residency with the Minnesota Opera, was commissioned by Finger Lakes Opera for that company's first opera, and has had two commissions at The Kennedy Center.