Students can now compete for a recording contract with Pioneer Records, Point Park’s new record label.
Associate professor Ed Traversari; associate professor and Sports, Arts and Entertainment Management (SAEM) department chair Steve Tanzilli; assistant professor Teresa Gregory; and assistant professor David Rowell and all of Point Park’s SAEM program wanted to give students hands-on experience that will prepare them for the real world. Together, they decided that the best way to achieve those goals was to actually open up the University’s own recording studio within the department.
“Most universities don’t have a record label, and we thought it was a natural progression for the SAEM program,” said Traversari, who is also a Pittsburgh concert promoter during an interview in his office on Sept. 17. “I started a record company class before we did this, and that’s what precipitated this.”
Now operational, Pioneer Records is staging a grand opening contest for all Point Park students to submit a demo where the winner will win a two semester long recording contract, recording time, 300 copies of their CD and a record release party on campus with hopes that it might launch them into the music industry.
So far, five contestants have entered the contest. The studio is looking to get at least double that by the time the contest ends.
Hannah Jenkins, a singer-songwriter and sophomore SAEM major, has always had a dream of producing her own record and having the possible shot at stardom, but she didn’t realize that her opportunity to record would come sooner rather than later when she decided to attend Point Park.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity,” Jenkins said during an interview Wednesday in the West Penn Building. “I feel like I’ll be able to put myself out there more because I don’t get the chance to do that very often.”
Jenkins and others who enter the contest will produce their own three-song Extended Playlist (EP) at Point Park’s new production facility.
Pioneer Records recording studio will be located at Red Caiman Media across the street from CONSOL Energy Center in Downtown. There is talk of a possible expansion of the label in years to come. The expansion of the label will depend mostly on the demand, but for now the label is going to stay strictly accessible only to Point Park students, Traversari said.
“I like keeping it on campus because I want to give students the first shot,” Traversari said.
This connection with Red Caiman Media will open up the doors to more Point Park classrooms. Students will be having their recording class at Red Caiman Media taught by either Jesse Naus, Red Caiman Media producer, or Mark Fritzges, Vice President of Promotions at Atlantic Records.
This new record label and recording studio is not the only opportunity for students to get their name known on campus.
With the development of Pioneer Records, Melody and Dennis Scott, the owners of the new on campus restaurant, Hundred Wood, are eager to bring in local talent and hopefully bring people into the new recording studio.
“We want to work, not only with students, [but] we’d like to focus on just live music in general,” Dennis Scott said when asked about what kind of talent the restaurant plans to bring in, Thursday at the restaurant.
Although the Scotts have not yet spoken to anyone at Pioneer Records about this, they would love to host the winner’s record release party, whether it is an indoor acoustic performance or an outdoor amplified performance.
The winner’s record release party will be held this upcoming April on campus once they have finished recordings.
Students who wish to enter the contest can submit a demo CD by Oct. 3 at 4pm to Traversari in his office on the 11th floor of the West Penn building. When this deadline hits, a panel of celebrity judges yet to be named will pick the winner of the contest. The winner will win recording time in the new studio, 300 copies of their new CD and a record release party.
