Between the moving 33 marriages officiated by Queen Latifia during the big-winners Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performance (oh, and Madonna!), the memorable performances by Daft Punk and Beyonce/Jay-Z, and the funny dancing of Taylor Swift - it was easy to miss a special, first-time-for-the-Grammy's award that recognizes artist's teachers - the Music Educator Award.

Neil Portnow, Ryan Seacrest, and John Legend (who is a huge advocate for arts education and has participated in Americans for the Arts' Arts Advocacy Day) presented the award to Kent Knappenberger, a general music teacher at Westfield Academy and Central School in rural New York. In addition to being the music teacher for all grades 6 - 12; Kent oversees a sixth grade choir, a seventh and eighth grade boys' chorus, a high school mixed chorus, a select chamber chorus, a men's choir, a woman's choir, four hand bell ensembles, four steel pan ensembles, and a Celtic/American string band.

We applaud the Grammys for adding this award to the many bestowed on music artists every year, and by doing so recognizing that art educators help make artists the performers and creators that they are!

In the words of Ryan Seacrest, "we're so pleased with the spotlight this award places on the thousands of great music educators working to provide the inspiration, the passion, and the skills our young musicians need that we're going to do it all over again! So to nominate your favorite music teacher for next year's award, just go to GRAMMYMusicTeacher.com and tell us about them."

To read a mini interview with the three presenters, click on the original link below.