From left: Alan Meyerson, Dave Pensado, Chris Lord-Alge, John McBride, John Cerullo.
Photo: Chris Schmitt Photography.
On Saturday, April 23, 2016, the Pensado Media Center in North Hollywood hosted Penwick Media and Hal Leonard’s launch event for Pensado’s Strive, a multi-format educational initiative. Hal Leonard Group Publisher John Cerullo, together with Pensado’s Place hosts Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick, formed Pensado’s Strive to create high-quality educational content for musicians, engineers and producers. Groove3.com will distribute the online versions of Pensado’s Strive content.
Cerullo introduced Trawick and Pensado, who then gave background on the series and introduced remarks from Blackbird Studios owner and founder John McBride. Next to speak were Virgil Roberts from Usher’s New Look Foundation; vocal producer Kuk Harrell, who joined the conversation via Skype; songwriter Vincent Berry II; producer/engineer Tony Maserati, who also participated via Skype; and producer/engineer Chris Lord-Alge.
Also in attendance were composer Brent Fischer, Grammy Award–winning engineer Alan Meyerson, engineer and mixer DJ Ali, composer/producer/studio owner CJ Vanston, producer/engineer Ross Hogarth, mastering engineer Gavin Lurssen, Manley Laboratories president EveAnna Manley, and The Bakery Mastering owner Eric Boulanger, among others.
“Pensado’s Strive opens a channel to the world to share our knowledge,” says Chris Lord-Alge. “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.”
From left: Dave Pensado, George Adjieff (CEO of Westlake Pro), John Cerullo, Herb Trawick, Will Thompson (Habitual Social), Chris Lord-Alge, and Shaun Fabos and Steve Fabos, partners in Dave Pensado’s new facility Fab Factory.
Photo: Chris Schmitt Photography.
“We are very proud to be here today to launch Pensado’s Strive,” Cerullo says. “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.”
Content will come from Pensado and Trawick as well as The Blackbird Academy, Usher’s New Look Foundation, Kuk Harrell, Chris Lord-Alge, Tony Maserati, Yeuda Ben-Atar, Bobby Borg, and others. The Strive titles will appear in audio/visual media as well as books and online enhanced digital print.
For further information, visit www.pensadosplace.tv, www.halleonard.com and www.groove3.com.
