Off Campus Programs

Contemporary Music Center In Martha's Vineyard

By Courtney Somerville '02

His name is Warren. He wears white. He gives hugs. He ends the class with “I love you all.” This is the infamous “Darth Pettit” that we all know and love.
Maybe it’s the fresh island air. Maybe it’s the lack of cable television. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s in Macintosh heaven. Whatever it is, former Greenville College professor Warren Pettit is the one running the show here on Martha’s Vineyard, and he’s happier than we have ever seen him before.

The first semester of the Contemporary Music Center has started off with full enrollment, and all thirty of the students couldn’t have asked for a better location to pursue our artistic endeavors. Included is a world-class recording studio, beautiful cottages for guest artists, and a gourmet chef named Bubbles. All these things come together to form an artists’ colony with one goal in mind: to provide college students with an unparalleled opportunity to make and market contemporary music.

“Don’t talk about it, do it,” has been, and will continue to be, the theme of the semester. In other words, the students don’t have four classes per day. They don’t sit and listen to lecture after lecture. They learn by doing.

Days are busy here on the Island. Artists wake up at the crack of noon to get ready for lunch and their first class. Those on the executive track begin a little earlier with office hours starting around 10:00 a.m.

The musicians spend their day song-writing, recording and performing. They will spend these four months gaining performance experience and knowledge of the music business under the direction Pettit and long-time industry leader Tom Willett. In addition, the artists have all signed with Offshore Entertainment Group, a student-run management, booking, and public relations firm. Melissa Wilkerson and Tami Hinesh, two GC students, are hard at work preparing their new albums. Most recently, they’ve been performing around the Island. They will eventually take their act on the road in late November with a multi-city tour of the east coast.

Now that Wilkerson doesn’t have to write papers for the religion department, she has decided to take up a different kind of writing. Instead of leading praise and worship for The Well, she started composing several original pieces, and will continue to write as the semester rolls on. Wilkerson reported that she has had a great time learning about music since she came to the Island, and that ”every day has been a new and exciting adventure in which I am learning to embrace both God and music in new ways.”

Hinesh had her band put together by the time her first week here was over. She’s in her element right now, waking up to music, spending her day breathing music, and writing and playing before she goes to bed each night. “I’m having a great time. It’s wonderful to be able to focus exclusively on music for an entire semester. I highly recommend it to all you CCMer’s!”

Courtney Somerville came to take part in the executive track. She was hired by the Offshore Entertainment Group to be a manger and booking agent. Somerville and her business partner have signed five artists to their roster, and are hard at work booking their tour and getting them ready to go on the road. “The experience that I’m getting here is one of a kind, and I couldn’t have asked for better instructors and musicians to work with.”

So what does Pettit think about all of this? “It’s a nasty job, but somebody has to do it.” Nasty indeed. Pettit spends his day fixing Internet problems, trouble-shooting in the studio, waiting for UPS to deliver televisions that have been missing in action for a month, and being chased down by musicians. When he needs to get away, he goes back to the home that he and his family are currently renting in a town about 10 miles away from the property. How does he get there? Well, he’s had to trade in his trusty bike for the CMC’s station wagon.

Admissions for the Spring 2002 semester are open until October 15, so come and check it out for yourself if you’re interested in making and marketing contemporary music. In the meantime, Pettit, Wilkerson, Hinesh and Somerville will be busy completing their four months in an island paradise where making music is how you make the grade.

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Last updated: October 15, 2001