During the 65th Annual Grammy Awards this past Sunday, February 5th, Kitt Wakeley, East Central OK '87, won his first Grammy for An Adoption Story. Winning in the category of Best Classical Compendium Album, Wakeley stated the following during his acceptance speech:
“Winning a GRAMMY is the highest honor of my music career and today I have the privilege of receiving the gold statuette. I’m so honored that this album and the GRAMMY process have cast such a positive light on foster care and adoptive families. I’m blessed to have worked with such an amazing team of musicians and music creatives who were able to elevate my music into something that captured the passion and spirit behind it. I’ll embrace this moment with the utmost humility and cherish the moment with my family, friends, and peers for the rest of my career.
I’d like to thank The Recording Academy for this opportunity and to congratulate all the nominees and fellow winners. The quality of this year’s GRAMMY submissions was spectacular.”
The alumni run website, PKT Alumni Club, wrote up a piece on Wakeley and his accomplishments, which we will feature below:
Kitt Wakeley and his family.
Christopher “Kitt” Wakeley was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up in Holdenville, Oklahoma. He completed his bachelor’s degree in pre-Law and sociology and a master's in public administration from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. He was initiated into the Gamma Xi Chapter of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity on December 12, 1987. Kitt received his master's degree in health administration from the University of Oklahoma in 1994 and is an active member of the PKT Alumni Club.
An Adoption Story features the London Symphony Orchestra recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios, plus stellar featured guests, including Grammy Award-winning South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, 15-time Grammy Award-nominated guitarist Joe Satriani, among many other talented musicians. The album features additional production by three-time Grammy Award-winner Tre Nagella, mixing by Eva Reistad, and mastering by four-time Grammy Award-winner Gavin Lurssen.
An Adoption Story is Kitt’s personal musical voyage that explores his time in the foster care system as a young child where he was separated from his half-sister, Tasha. His subsequent adoption into a loving family, reuniting with Tasha decades later, and to the present, where Kitt and his wife Melissa adopted three siblings — Chris (9), KJ (7), and Nia (6) — to keep them from going through the same trauma of separation he experienced. A year after the adoption of Chris, KJ, and Nia, Kitt’s story about reuniting with Tasha spread to national media.