The more than 29,000 members of the Recording Academy contribute to the organization by casting votes for the year’s GRAMMY Awards. But multi-instrumentalist Chelsey Green’s (MM ’09, Viola) new role affords her even more influence. In June 2025, Green was elected as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Recording Academy. She is the first Black woman and the youngest person to hold this position in the organization’s 68 years.
“It’s an honor for me to be elected at this time,” she says. “I’m grateful that my colleagues trusted me to hold this position and work toward continuing to improve and evolve our Academy.”
Positioning itself as the “leading community of music professionals,” the Recording Academy’s mission is three-part: to honor and “recognize excellence in the recording arts and sciences (via the GRAMMY Awards), to cultivate the well-being of the music community and ensure that music remains an indelible part of our culture.”
Academy membership is open to those actively working in or supporting others in the music industry, though potential members must submit rigorous applications, as well as provide recommendations from industry peers. Green joined the Academy’s national Board of Trustees in 2021, and since then has held several national leadership positions, including being elected Vice Chair of the Board and Co-Chair of the Black Music Collective, an advisory group of leaders who champion and promote opportunities for Black musicians.
Green says her main goal as chair is to connect creators and ensure resources are available to Academy members at every level. “I want us to be more intentional about celebrating all sides of our members. The GRAMMYs are presented one day a year. The Academy’s mission is about celebrating, serving, and advocating for our members the other 364 days of the year as well.”
Green began studying violin at age 4 and switched to viola during her senior year in high school over a two-week period leading up to auditions for Texas’ All-State Orchestra. She made third chair and earned a scholarship in viola to the University of Texas at Austin.
Playing the viola was a revelation to Green. “The shift was so pivotal to me,” she recalls. “I felt connected to the viola. It sounded like my voice sounds—quite different, very low, an alto range. Playing it just made me feel better about what I was able to offer as a musician.”
Since then, Green has forged a rich and multifaceted musical path, earning a master’s degree at Peabody and a DMA from the University of Maryland at College Park. In 2017, she became an associate professor in the String Department of Berklee College of Music where she teaches violin and viola. She has performed with musicians like Stevie Wonder and Lizzo, and during the summer of 2025 played in the touring band of the Americana duo The War and Treaty.
Green also performs as a soloist and as a leader with The Green Project, a jazz-inflected ensemble formed while she was a student at Peabody. In those shows, she showcases a range of talents as wide as the range of musical genres—classical, jazz, pop, R&B—she embraces. She sings; she plays viola and violin. Sometimes she tells jokes and shares stories.
“I feel like my violin, my viola, my voice—it’s all the same instrument,” says Green. “It’s about the freedom to make music in that way that allows me to tap into all the different sides of me unapologetically and give this expression to the art that I really can’t explain.”
Green says her father, who is also a musician, comments frequently on the broad variety of her musical commitments, telling her: “I don’t know a musician right now who does the diversity of gigs that you perform back-to-back.” She responds, “I just do not find any division. Assigning something to a genre is almost limiting the audience instead of just inviting them into a musical experience.”
Green’s ascension to one of the music industry’s most influential positions has been a steady climb, and she is excited about what lies ahead for the Recording Academy. “We have the opportunity to connect community both musically and otherwise through how we execute and connect as artists through the spaces where we perform and how we advocate for people,” Green says. “I’m ready to get started.”