DHI Instructor and Lead Engineer Wins Grammy Award

Dave Hagen Receives Grammy For His Work with Keb’Mo

Dark Horse Institute Instructor and lead Engineer Dave Hagen wins a Grammy for Mixing Keb’ Mo’s latest album, Oklahoma. Released in 2019, Oklahoma received the highest industry node from the music community by bringing home a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.

Dave has been producing, engineering, and teaching for over a decade at Dark Horse Recording and its companion school Dark Horse Institute. His credits include Sting, Audio Adrenaline, Foghat, and many other notable artists. As a driving force in educating the next generation of Audio Engineers and Producers, Dave has influenced countless careers and students to achieve their goals.

With a fresh Grammy to his name and asked what makes working on projects like Oklahoma special? Hagen says, “My best days are when I get to have the best seat in the house, observe, contribute, and maybe have some ownership over all the talent going on around me.”

Hagen’s humble approach is what keeps him at the console, “as an engineer, even as a producer, my job is not to make music, my job is to present music. And that’s all a collaborative process, so anytime its good, I’m only not screwing it up, for someone else who is really impressive.”

Winning this Grammy allows Hagen to do more mixing and continue growing his already impressive list of credits. It also gives him the rare opportunity to share with his students and future music professional how to be part of a successful Grammy-winning production team.

If you are interested in pursuing a music production career, Dark Horse Institute’s Music Production Program is a great way to take things to the next level when you are ready.