Unique partnership between Penwick Media (the team behind Pensado’s Place) and publisher Hal Leonard results in new series of multi-formatted (audio, video and published/print) educational content of the highest quality for musicians, recordists and the music community as a whole

LOS ANGELES, CA, April 5, 2016 — Penwick Media (the creators of Pensado’s Place, the acclaimed weekly educational web series) and Hal Leonard (the leading publisher of books and digital content on the music business, audio technology, and related content) jointly announce the introduction of 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, a leading online learning site who will act as a primary distributor of the online versions of Pensado’s Strive content. 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 Kuk Harrell (vocal producer: Rihanna, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, others), Yeuda Ben-Atar (Ableton-certified trainer, Beat Lab Academy founder), Bobby Borg (noted educator and author) and others. With contributions from this elite group, Pensado’s Strive will quickly rise to the top among the audio and music community’s best resources. All Pensado’s Strive A/V and interactive digital print content will be easily accessible via Groove3’s online subscription platform. Groove3.com currently offers over 1,100 hours of instructional videos, much of it in the audio education marketplace.  In partnership with Hal Leonard, Groove3 continually releases new titles to ensure their subscribers have access to the most up-to-date training, for not only recording, mixing, and producing audio, but also musicianship training on varied instruments and across many genres. “We are extremely excited about Pensado’s Strive. This new initiative will allow us to provide our subscribers with added content from the best of the best, from sound engineering, mixing, mastering and beyond,” noted Asa Doyle of Groove3.com. 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. This is one of the key differences compared to other online learning offerings: only Strive will penetrate the market on all levels from tradition print to online A/V course and digital print programs throughout the world. For example, one of the first releases under the Strive umbrella is The Blackbird Foundation Series with 15 titles, authored by instructors of The Blackbird Academy, the renowned Nashville-based professional school of audio. The courses will be available on Groove3.com, but additionally in traditional book form and as enhanced e-books with links to online content. Hal Leonard will distribute these titles to the traditional musical instrument market and to large online consumer sites such as Amazon, but also to a myriad of specialized resellers that cater to schools, colleges and audio trade schools. No other educational initiative has this kind of global reach with such a wide variety of product formats. Drawing on their Pensado’s Place experience, Dave Pensado and Herb Trawick had the vision to create educational content for their community, with signature courses by Dave Pensado on sound engineering, by Herb Trawick on music business and publishing, and by Will Thompson, Pensado’s social media guru, on social marketing and communication. Additionally, and most forward-looking, the Pensado team is instrumental for talent acquisition: Herb Trawick has the uncanny ability to bring iconic artists and industry heavyweights to the table, and he identifies the best up-and-coming talent to contribute educational content to Strive. With this series, musicians all over the world will be able to learn from cutting-edge producers, engineers, mixers, vocal coaches and others. “With Pensado’s Strive, we’ve brought together world-class content creators and the most sought-after material to create a comprehensive, 360-degree audio learning experience,” said John Cerullo, publisher of Hal Leonard Books. Dave Pensado notes, “Everyone working on the Pensado’s Strive initiative is driven by a passion for education. The artists and professionals who are providing content for Strive feel a deep urge to give back to the audio community by educating the next generation. They all say they wished something like Strive had been available when they started out. Pensado’s Strive fills this void and provides mentorship from successful and experienced professionals to those who are just starting out in their musical endeavors.”