The Pensado Media Center in North Hollywood was the place to be for VIPs in music production and engineering, music education, publishing and beyond, as Penwick Media (the creators of Pensado’s Place, the acclaimed weekly educational web series) and Hal Leonard (the publisher of books and digital content on the music business, audio technology, and related content) held the official launch event for Pensado’s Strive, an innovative new multi-format educational initiative.
Driven by a passion for education, Hal Leonard Group Publisher John Cerullo, together with Pensado’s Place hosts Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick (the principals and namesakes of Penwick Media) have created Pensado’s Strive based on their shared vision of creating educational content of the highest quality for musicians, engineers and producers on all levels, as well as the music community as a whole. Another key partner in this initiative is Groove3.com, an online learning site who will act as a primary distributor of the online versions of Pensado’s Strive content.
The event began with remarks from John Cerullo, who introduced Trawick and Pensado, who then addressed the crowd and gave background on the series. Trawick and Pensado introduced remarks from John McBride, owner and founder of Blackbird Studios and The Blackbird Academy (an organization that has the distinction of authoring the first-to-market Pensado’s Strive title).
Next to speak were Virgil Roberts from Usher’s New Look Foundation; Kuk Harrell (vocal producer of Rihanna, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and others), who joined the conversation via Skype; songwriter Vincent Berry II (a formerly homeless man who has found recent success, including a cut on Beyoncé’s hit Lemonade, thanks to the support of Trawick and Pensado); producer/engineer Tony Maserati (Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, Gwen Stefani), who also participated via Skype; and producer/engineer Chris Lord-Alge (Pink, Foo Fighters, Avril Lavigne, Green Day).
Also in attendance were composer Brent Fischer (a recent Grammy® winner for his work on D’Angelo’s Black Messiah), Grammy-winning engineer Alan Meyerson (Hans Zimmer), engineer and mixer DJ Ali (Kendrick Lamar), composer/producer/studio owner CJ Vanston, producer/engineer Ross Hogarth, mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen, Manley Laboratories President, EveAnna Manley, The Bakery Mastering owner Eric Boulanger and many more.
Lord-Alge commented, “Pensado’s Strive opens a channel to the world to share our knowledge. There have been other avenues to share information, and a lot of us do seminars and outreach, but Pensado’s Strive collects these resources in a very powerful way, putting them into the hands, globally, of everyone who might benefit. It’s about teaching the next generation, and that is the greatest gift we can give the community. Music is the one language that works in every country, and it’s worth sharing.”
Cerullo added, “We are very proud to be here today to launch Pensado’s Strive. We believe that this program is very special and very unique. Hal Leonard developed a relationship with the Pensado team when we published The Pensado Papers a few years ago. Through that process, we realized how simpatico we were in terms of educational endeavors and how to engage with real learners who are inspired to grow their craft and their knowledge. Since then, we have been working hard at building this new series, as far as bringing motivated authors on board and developing the curriculum. It is very exciting for Hal Leonard to be involved in this program, and we anticipate great things moving forward.”
Penwick, Hal Leonard and Groove3 serve as the three pillars for this groundbreaking educational undertaking. Under the Pensado’s Strive umbrella, a vast array of courses will be available globally to those who want to further their knowledge, skills and careers in the audio and music creation space. Content will come not only from Pensado and Trawick, but also from many other industry leaders, such as The Blackbird Academy, Usher’s New Look Foundation and international engineering, performing and coaching gurus like Harrell, Lord-Alge, Maserati, Yeuda Ben-Atar (Ableton-certified trainer, Beat Lab Academy founder), Bobby Borg (noted educator and author) and others. The publishing power and credibility of Hal Leonard, the leading publisher of books and digital content on the music business, offers Pensado’s Strive the unparalleled ability to reach a global network of traditional and online resellers as well as educational markets. The Strive titles will not be limited to audio/visual media, but will also be disseminated in multiple formats such as books and online enhanced digital print.
For more information, visit pensadosplace.tv.
