It’s such a good feeling: Cheryl Pawelski ‘89 takes home a second Grammy award
Cheryl Pawelski, Journalism ’89, is Co-Owner/Partner of Omnivore Entertainment Group. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, she has combined her education and experiences at Marquette University with an entrepreneurial spirit to carve out a niche in the music industry.
I’m a record producer and co-owner/partner of Omnivore Entertainment Group. Our company is set up to have four different purposes. First, we are a record label specializing mainly in historical releases (commonly referred to as reissues, compilations and boxed sets), and we release select new recordings if they relate to the historical work we do. Second, we are also a music publisher, representing underlying compositions separate from the sound recordings. Third, we license music for film, television and advertising, and fourth, we consult to artists, estates, other record labels, media companies etc.
To be trusted with these types of towering legacies is honor enough, to be recognized by our peers in the industry is humbling and wonderful.
My favorite part of my role is how varied it is, how much there is always to learn and problem-solve, and how many opportunities there are to utilize my creativity and imagination. It’s one thing to curate an album, it’s a whole other thing to curate a label. By creating our own company, we eliminated any walls around creativity, but we also assumed all the risk — but because it is our risk and we make and own our choices and mistakes, it’s freeing. We can no longer be laid off or made redundant, our success or failure is up to us.
Grammy number one was for an all previously unissued, unknown set of Hank Williams radio transcriptions. Obviously, a musical and songwriting giant and an historic find. Grammy number two is for a different kind of giant, and it’s so wonderful to have Mister Rogers honored in the historical category. As I said in my brief speech, Mister Rogers and the Peanuts television specials introduced several generations to the sounds of jazz. In addition to all the truly good lessons taught on the show, there was improvised jazz, live on the set as they were creating each episode. I think that’s incredible. Fred Rogers, Johnny Costa, Carl McVicker and Bob Rawsthorne played live in the studio from 1968 til 1996 when Johnny Costa died. The music continued under a new music director until 2001 when the show ended — that’s over three decades and several generations of kids! To be trusted with these types of towering legacies is honor enough, to be recognized by our peers in the industry is humbling and wonderful.
The project originated with my friend, Morgan Neville’s documentary on Fred Rogers called, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? We went to see a screening of it, and I wondered out loud to Morgan after as to why there was no soundtrack. He said the notion of a soundtrack just hadn’t come up or something to that effect, but said he too wondered why Mister Rogers’ music was largely out of print. So I went about my usual work doing some research and talking to the kind folks at Fred Rogers Productions. We put together a new album called It’s Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister Rogers. Of course, we wanted to have all the “hits” included, but I also wanted to find out if there was any unissued material that just hadn’t ever made it to an album. Sure enough there was, and even better, the song, “Tomorrow” which Fred used to end the show with, had never been on an album! We issued that song and a few others for the first time on It’s Such A Good Feeling. We asked Morgan to write a note of introduction, and long-time Pittsburgh-based, television critic, Robert Bianco, came on board to write the liner notes. All in all, it was a very successful release.
Any Grammy experience is anxiety filled for those nominated (that probably goes without saying) but this year was made more so because of the virtual stream and all the technical challenges that come with it. Normally, everyone who is nominated on a project would go up on stage and give their acceptance remarks, but this year we had to choose one representative from the group. We figured out how to get all of us on an iPad that we held up to the camera, so we could “be” there. It’s funny because there was a time delay in each of us finding out we had won. We were in Portland, and as I was giving our acceptance speech, you can see our restoration/mastering partners Mike & Joy in LA find out we won, and then seconds later my co-producer Lee and his wife, Cynthia in Indiana find out. It’s pretty funny. We missed seeing all our friends and all the fancy parties, but it was “Such A Good Feeling” nonetheless!
There’s no pathway to my profession. There’s no school you can attend that will teach you how to do what I do. What I do is varied, interdisciplinary and largely learned on the job. Further, when I was kid and a high school student, there were little to no representations of jobs in the music business to be found, and if there was a hint of something, whatever it was, it was most certainly NOT being done by a woman. Even at Marquette I was an anomaly because I was in the Journalism sequence as an advertising major, but hanging with all the broadcast people at MUTV and WMUR. What it all added up to though was a critical creative space that was one step closer to where I needed to go. For the first time in my life, I was organizing projects or shows, with a group of like-minded, creative people and producing things. I found a lane and everything finally clicked, made sense and locked in a little bit more for me. The impact was huge. I’m sure I drove more than a few of my friends crazy because I was all in, passionate and quite determined to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to me in having the facilities and tools with a schedule of productions to produce. To this day, I like nothing better!
My advice to students: Be curious and open. Don’t be afraid of mistakes or failing, do those things especially. Take good people along with you. Allow yourself to play and be happy. Figure out how you want to spend your days and go towards whatever that is. Always be kind.
