Charlie Rosen, Bryan Carter and Matthew Whitaker Win GRAMMY® Award For “Super Mario Praise Break”
The 8-Bit Big Band Collaborators Take Home Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella at 68th GRAMMY® Awards
On February 1, 2026, Charlie Rosen, Bryan Carter, and Matthew Whitaker won the GRAMMY® Award for ‘Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella’ for “Super Mario Praise Break” from The 8-Bit Big Band’s album Orchestrator Emulator at the 68th GRAMMY® Awards. The win marks Whitaker’s first GRAMMY®, while Rosen earned his third and Carter his second. Released via TeamChuck Records in July 2025, the arrangement represents a joyful, gospel-inspired celebration of what the trio describes as the “sacred space video games have created for so many as a place of escape, of comfort, and of community.”
“I am always still in a bit of grateful shock and awe to be recognized by the Recording Academy for our work with The 8-Bit Big Band,” said Rosen. “This arrangement, and every arrangement we do, is in service of showcasing all of the incredible musicians who contribute to this project with their immense range of talent, life experiences, and musical vocabularies that I am lucky to surround myself with, without whom our arranging would have no voice.”
Carter reflected on the creative achievement: “What a tremendous honor to accept a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. It is an even greater privilege to be recognized alongside such esteemed and gifted arrangers who continually elevate our art form. Super Mario Praise Break offered a rare opportunity to bring the timeless, iconic language of video-game music into conversation with the majesty and spiritual power of gospel—a meeting of two beloved traditions.”
For Whitaker, this marks a career milestone. “I’ve always dreamed of working with The 8-Bit Big Band ever since I first heard them back in my senior year of high school,” he said. “I’m incredibly honored and grateful to receive my first Grammy for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella. This award is a celebration of collaboration, imagination, and the power of music to connect people across generations.”
“Super Mario Praise Break” is featured on Orchestrator Emulator, The 8-Bit Big Band’s fifth album, which also earned a nomination for ‘Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album’. The album showcases inventive, meticulously crafted arrangements performed by more than 75 of New York City’s finest musicians, expanding the ensemble’s ambitious project of elevating the “great video game songbook” into the realm of modern large-ensemble jazz.
These wins build on Rosen and Carter’s established creative partnership. Rosen previously won Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella at the 64th GRAMMYs for “Meta Knight’s Revenge,” co-arranged with Jake Silverman for The 8-Bit Big Band, and the duo earned a subsequent arrangement nomination for “Last Surprise” from the 8-Bit Big Band’s fourth album, Game Changer. Rosen and Carter also won a GRAMMY® together as co-orchestrators of the Original Broadway Cast Recording of Some Like It Hot, a project that earned Carter and Rosen a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations.
The 8-Bit Big Band, the acclaimed jazz-pops orchestra dedicated to reimagining video game music through the lens of big band jazz, has amassed nearly half a million social followers and millions of YouTube views, while continuing to sell out venues across the globe and earning praise from The New York Times, Forbes, and Jazziz, who wrote that the group “is redefining the concept of a modern big band.”
*(Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter Photo by Getty Images for the Recording Academy®)