Photo courtesy of the Warren Concert Association Nicole Zuraitis, who won the 2024 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, has performed in Warren four times in recent years - three concerts with the Warren Concert Association and once for a private event at the Struthers Library Theatre.

A recent Grammy award went to an artist with a connection to Warren.

Singer/songwriter Nicole Zuraitis won the 2024 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album for her LP “How Love Begins.”

“Zuraitis and (her husband, Dan) Pugach have performed for local audiences four times in recent years,” Pat Evans with the Warren Concert Association told the Times Observer. “They were hosted for three concerts with the Warren Concert Association and also performed for a private Struthers Library Theatre event.”

The Grammy for has been presented every year since 1977. The first winner? Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald.

“Thank you, from a jazz singer songwriter who spent well over a decade singing in the back of crowded bars hoping someone would hear her,” Zuraitis posted on Facebook with a picture of her holding the award. “Thank you for listening to me.”

The award-winning album was released back in July.

Evans said that Zuraitis first came to Warren as a pianist and vocalist as part of the female trio, EVA, in 2016.

“At the time EVA was booked, the group was just three musicians,” Evans said. “Taking the stage, however, the women vocalists and instrumentalists were joined, for the first time, by drummer Dan Pugach.”

Zuraitis married that drummer in 2018.

“The second concert presented the Dan Pugach Nonet Plus One, with the plus one being vocalist and pianist Nicole Zuraitis,” Evans said. “By the time the wife and husband team performed in Warren for the third time, they were first-time Grammy nominees and performed as the Nicole Zuraitis Quartet.”

Prior to winning the Grammy on Sunday, Evans said she was previously nominated for Pugach’s composition and their band’s performance of “Jolene,” a Dolly Parton classic.