Every year, Portland has a very strong connection to the Grammy Awards, thanks to the work of Bob Ludwig and Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering. The two are stars in the world of mastering – the final fine-tuning of a recording – and they master recordings for dozens of star acts.

This year, more than two dozen recordings that they worked on are among the nominees, including works by Mumford & Sons, Jack White, The Lumineers, Bruce Springsteen and Carrie Underwood.

For most recordings they master, Ludwig and Ayan wouldn’t get their own Grammy. But this year, Ludwig is a named nominee in two categories: Album of the Year and Best-Engineered Album, Non-Classical. His chances are pretty good too, since he has two nominations in each category.

Ludwig is listed as mastering engineer on “Babel” by Mumford & Sons and “Blunderbuss” by Jack White in the Album of the Year category. He’s also listed as mastering engineer on “Ashes & Fire” by Ryan Adams and “Love Is a Four Letter Word” by Jason Mraz in the Best Engineered Album Category.

Also this year, Portland native Dan Snyder has a strong connection to the Grammy Awards. The independent producer-writer has been working with a rising artist from England named Beaux Saunders, who was recently named runner-up in the Grammys/Hitlab Emerging Artist Competition.

Besides earning attention from the music industry, Saunders’ placement in the contest earned her a spot performing at an official Grammy-affiliated event, which was scheduled for this past Friday. Snyder was co-writer of Saunders’ song “Ain’t That Beautiful.”

“To be mentioned in the same circle with all those people at the Grammys is great,” said Snyder, 28, who now lives in Portsmouth, N.H. “It’s the kind of thing that has a lot of value in terms of attracting attention and helping make connections.”