Four NYU faculty and alumni won Grammys last night

They bleed Violet

The internet is talking a lot today about certain parts of last night’s Grammys; Beyonce’s majestic pregnancy performance, Adele and Beyonce flipping that dialogue of feuding women celebrities completely on its head or A Tribe Called Quest giving a huge musical middle finger to “President Orange”. But another important thing happened last night: four NYU alumni and faculty members won Grammys.

John Scofield – an instructor in the Jazz Studies program at Steinhart – took home two Grammys last night; these included ‘Best Improvised Jazz Solo” for I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry and ‘Best Jazz Instrumental Album’ for Country of Old Men. This is not the first time Scofield has taken home a Grammy, having won the award for ‘Best Instrumental Jazz Album’ last year.

Kevin Killen – an adjunct professor at the Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music in Tisch – was also successful last night, winning the Grammy for ‘Best Engineered Album’ for David Bowie’s Blackstar. (The album and record won 5 Grammys in total).

Tisch alumna Melina Matsoukas also won a Grammy – her second in 4 years – for her work as a director on Beyoncé’s Formation video, which won for ‘Best Music Video’.

Finally, Alex Pall – who makes up one half of the band The Chainsmokers – won his first Grammy for ‘Best Dance Recording’ for Don’t Let Me Down, though the band missed out on awards for ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Best Vocal Performance’, losing to Chance the Rapper and Twenty One Pilots respectively.

This is the highest honor any musician can have and saying we are grateful just doesn't do this moment justice. We want to dedicate this to all our friends, family and most importantly our fans. Thank you for everything you've given us. We are back in the studio first thing tomorrow with even more focus and dedication for this album!

A photo posted by The Chainsmokers (@thechainsmokers) on Feb 12, 2017 at 10:42pm PST

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