WARREN PETTEY
WARREN PETTEY
Born in 2000, Warren was raised just south of Boston. He was introduced to the musical world at two years old by his father who had him begin studying the drums. By the age of five, Warren had also started lessons on the piano and had picked up a little electric bass; by age 10 he was playing gigs around town and had even opened for the GRAMMY-nominated vocalist, Gretchen Parlato, at the Narrows Center for the Arts. By age 16, Warren had graduated high school, completed a dual-enrollment course at college, and was gigging daily. Some of his favorite memories from this time include participating in a masterclass with the GRAMMY-winning artist Jon Batiste and performing at the Newport Jazz Festival and PVDFest.
Throughout high school, Warren was honored to be one of the last students of the legendary educator, Hal Crook, who wrote that Warren was “By far one of the best private piano students I have had in my 45 years of teaching. Mature far beyond his years as both an instrumentalist and improviser.” In April 2016, Warren received Berklee College of Music’s Presidential Scholarship—a coveted, merit-based award offered to only seven students per year. It was at Berklee that Warren started studying the techniques of recording and mixing. The studio quickly became a comfortable home where he would spend up to a dozen hours a day. Berklee also afforded him the opportunity for a masterclass and performance with the GRAMMY-winning artist Michael League of Snarky Puppy, and a semester in Valencia, Spain, which closed with a performance at Musaico Festival. By the age of 20, he had an impressive discography consisting of playing, recording, and mixing credits on major record labels like Warner Music and PBS. While finishing his Capstone Project under his dual major at Berklee, he was fortunate to study with the producer and mentor, Susan Rogers—the mastermind behind monumental albums such as Purple Rain by Prince and Stunt by Barenaked Ladies.
During the pandemic, Warren began working as a production assistant for the producer and percussionist, Tony Succar. His tasks included recording synths, mixing for social media, chart making, licensing and marketing, and audio/video editing. Within a year of working with Tony, Warren had credits on documentary awards, Tony’s albums, PBS, and more. In April of 2022, Tony attended the GRAMMY Awards for his nominated album Live in Peru, on which Warren has keyboard and engineering credits. In November of that year, Warren won silver prize in the AES Student Recording Competition for mixing the album, Shades, as well as participating in the creation of the gold prize. To date, Warren has performed at venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, Ryle’s Jazz Club, Narrows Center for the Arts, City Winery Boston, Berklee Performance Center, House of Blues Boston, Wally’s Jazz Club, Knickerbocker Cafe, and more. His current recording work is being done as an engineer and personal assistant at Unity One Studios.