Nine Alumni Nominated for Tony Awards
Boston Conservatory at Berklee associate alum Nicholas Christopher ('09) received his first Tony nomination in the category of Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his role in the Chess revival.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty for Tony Awards Productions
Nine alumni from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music have been nominated for 2026 Tony Awards in several major categories: Best Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Orchestrations, Best Score, Best Play, Best New Musical, and Best Book of a Musical. In total, more than 20 Berklee alumni contributed to 10 Tony-nominated productions this year.
Boston Conservatory at Berklee associate alum Nicholas Christopher ('09) received his first Tony nomination in the category of Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his role in the Chess revival. His performance as Anatoly Sergievsky has also been recognized with nominations from the Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards, and Drama League Awards.
Three Berklee College of Music alumni were nominated in the category of Best Orchestrations: Mike Morris BM ’83 was recognized for his work on Schmigadoon, while Adrianne Gonzalez BM ’99 and Kyler England ’00 of the Rescues were nominated for Best Orchestration and Best Score for The Lost Boys. Berklee College of Music alum Tye Blue ’99 also was nominated for Best Book of a Musical as coauthor of Titaníque, which he also directed.
In the category of Best Play, Berklee College of Music alumni Brian Lee BM ’14 and Dayna Lee Bloom ’14 were nominated as producers for Giant, while Boston Conservatory at Berklee alum Cedric Leiba Jr. (MM ’05) was nominated as producer for Liberation. Berklee Online alum Paul Gavriani BPS ’17 also received a nomination in the category of Best New Musical as a producer for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across NYC).
Several additional Berklee community members contributed to this year’s Tony Award–nominated productions—an ongoing list of those contributors can be found below. All individuals listed are Boston Conservatory at Berklee musical theater alumni unless otherwise noted.
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Bryson Battle BFA ’25, Jellylorum
Chess
Ian Kagey BM ’07 (Berklee College of Music), cast album recording engineer
The Lost Boys
Liesie Kelly ’25, swing, understudy for Star and Alan Frog
Hiro Iida PDM ’89 (Berklee College of Music), electronic music design
Ragtime
Allison Blackwell MM ’04, ensemble
Ian Kagey BM ’07 (Berklee College of Music), cast album recording, editing, and mixing
The Rocky Horror Show
Andrew Durand BFA ’08, Brad
Michaela Jae Rodriguez ’11 (Berklee College of Music), Columbia
Titaníque
Nick Connell BM ’11 (Berklee College of Music), orchestrator, arranger, music supervisor
Sara Gallo BFA ’16, swing, background vocalist/understudy for Celine
Two Strangers
Alejandro Venguer BM ’02 (Berklee College of Music), cast album recording engineer
The 79th Annual Tony Awards will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, June 7 at 8 p.m.