For Orchestrating Dear Evan Hansen, Alumnus Alex Lacamoire Wins Third Tony Award

Alex Lacamoire B.M. ’95 took home his second consecutive Tony Award for Best Orchestrations last night at the 71st annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He won for his work on the musical of the moment, Dear Evan Hansen; Broadway’s hottest ticket, Dear Evan Hansen won a total of six Tonys, including Best Musical. Lacamoire won the Best Orchestrations Tony last year for the megahit musical Hamilton, and he previously received the same award in 2008 for orchestrating another hit Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, In the Heights.

Berklee professor Bill Elliott was also nominated with Greg Anthony for the Best Orchestrations Tony this year for his work on the musical Bandstand. Elliott has been teaching arranging and orchestration in the Contemporary Writing and Production Department at Berklee since 2004 and won a Tony for Best Orchestrations in 2015 for his work on An American in Paris, along with Don Sebesky and Christopher Austin. Elliott's music has also appeared in films and TV shows such as Nixon, Wedding Crashers, Dick Tracy, Gilmore Girls, and Northern Exposure.

Many Boston Conservatory at Berklee musical theater and Berklee College of Music musical theater alumni performed in the casts of several of the top Tony-nominated shows this season, including Dear Evan Hansen; Indecent; Falsettos; Hello, Dolly!; Miss Saigon; and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.

Lacamoire spoke on a Broadway alumni panel and delivered a clinic to students this past fall, sticking around to give notes to musical theater students as they prepared to perform In the Heights at Berklee. “His humbleness and openness astounded us the most,” student cast member Gabriela Cabezas said at the time.

Watch colleagues discuss working with Lacamoire on Dear Evan Hansen: