Two Miami-Dade County magnet music programs earned Grammy-level recognition during the 2025-26 school year, and both are open to students countywide, including families in Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour and Bay Harbor Islands. The next application window opens Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026.

The achievements: a band director who won the top Grammy teaching honor, and a 24-member female vocal ensemble that landed on the official Grammy ballot for Best Choral Performance.

Jimenez wins Music Educator Award

Jennifer Jimenez, director of bands at South Miami Senior High School, was named the 2026 Grammy Music Educator Award winner at the Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards Ceremony on Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, according to the Recording Academy. The honor came with a $10,000 honorarium and a matching grant for her school's music program.

Jimenez is in her 19th year leading the band program at South Miami Senior High. She is also the principal percussionist for the Miami Symphony Orchestra, a Kennedy Center Sondheim Inspirational Teaching Award winner and a University of Miami Band Hall of Fame inductee. She has secured more than $84,000 in grants for her program, and her students have performed at Carnegie Hall and two Super Bowls.

"Band is the family that you choose," Jimenez said.

Bellarmonia hits the Grammy ballot

Bellarmonia, the treble ensemble at Miami Arts Studio 6-12 at Zelda Glazer, was placed on the official first-round ballot for Best Choral Performance at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards for their live album "Bellarmonia National ACDA 2025." The group did not advance to a final nomination. Had they been nominated, they would have been the first public high school ensemble to earn that distinction.

The 24 girls, ages 14 to 18, performed at the American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Dallas in March 2025 before an audience of 5,000. Their rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" went viral on social media. All members are first- or second-generation immigrants from Cuba, Central and South America, according to the school's ACDA profile. Grammy-winning saxophonist Ed Calle, a school advisory board member, suggested submitting the recording for Grammy consideration. It was mixed and mastered at the school's own recording studio and released through MAS Records, the school's nonprofit label.

Soloist Gabriella Marquez drew enough attention from the performance to earn an invitation to Carnegie Hall in June 2025. The ensemble has bookings across the country through 2027 and received an all-expenses-paid invitation to perform in South Korea.

Cindy Ellis, Bellarmonia's conductor and choral director at Miami Arts Studio since 2017, was a semifinalist for the same Grammy Music Educator Award that Jimenez won, according to M-DCPS.

How to apply

Miami Arts Studio 6-12 at Zelda Glazer is a countywide magnet school. Any M-DCPS student is eligible to apply through the Parent Portal at dadeschools.net. The application window runs from Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026, through Friday, Jan. 15, 2027.