Army Staff Sgt. Brandie Lane wins Grammy Award - Entertainment, Music - Air Force Times

Army Staff Sgt. Brandie Lane wins Grammy Award

A member of the U.S. Military Academy’s West Point Band recently carried home one of the most coveted awards in music.

Staff Sgt. Brandie Lane, a 26-year-old audio engineer, won a Grammy for best engineered album in the classical category.

The album — “Quincy Porter: Complete Viola Works by Eliesha Nelson” — was a project Lane worked on with three other musicians before she enlisted in July.

While working at Sono Luminus, a Northern Virginia record label that specializes in jazz and classical music, Lane performed her technical magic to meld tracks from three recording sessions into a seamless piece of work.

“When things are done in separate sessions, maybe the microphones are set differently,” she said, describing how different acoustics can affect the sound quality of an album.

It’s an audio engineer’s job to “take everything and make it sound like it is recorded in one session,” she said.

The project took a year to complete, and the album was released in early 2010. Lane worked at the record label for four years until she was drawn to the Army.

“I wanted to do something bigger,” she said. “I knew I wanted to serve my country, and this is the best way I felt like I could do it.”

As proud as she is of her award, Lane said she’s surprised at how much acclaim it has earned her at West Point.

“I just got a counseling session — saying I did a great job.”