Alex Lacamoire Wins 'Trailblazing' Kennedy Center Honor
Alex Lacamoire talks about his work on 'Hamilton' at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.
Image by Elman Studio (Yassine El Mansouri)
The creators of 'Hamilton' (L-R): Andy Blankenbuehler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, and Alex Lacamoire
Image by Scott Suchman
Three-time Tony Award–winner Alex Lacamoire B.M. ’95 has added another award to his shelf.
The 2018 Kennedy Center Honors, awarded in December, included a special joint award for Lacamoire and the three other creators of Hamilton: Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s writer and original star; director Thomas Kail; and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler. The award praised them as “trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category.” It marked the first time a piece of work, rather than an individual person, was honored.
Lacamoire has served as the show’s music director since its inception, while working on other projects such as Dear Evan Hansen, for which he won his third Tony Award. Lacamoire and his fellow Kennedy Center honorees all garnered Tonys both for Hamilton (2016) and for In the Heights, Miranda’s first Broadway hit (2008).
The evening included a performance of “One Last Time” by Miranda, Lacamoire, and Christopher Jackson, who originated the role of George Washington in Hamilton’s Broadway production. The show’s three original female stars—Renee Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, and Jasmine Cephas Jones ’09—also performed, with Lacamoire, their number “The Schuyler Sisters.”
Lacamoire visited Berklee in 2016 and spent an afternoon working with students during a rehearsal for a production of In the Heights. He studied arranging and film scoring as a Berklee student, playing in multiple jazz and rock ensembles and combining those influences with his Cuban-American musical roots.
Watch Lacamoire perform "One Last Time" with Jackson and Miranda:
