The crew hunched over pushing cases of drum kits and sub-woofers
across the meandering sidewalks Friday night to the outdoor stage
at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga didn’t look like your everyday
stagehands: burly men, facial hair more often than not, wearing
just the color black.
The crew hunched over pushing cases of drum kits and sub-woofers across the meandering sidewalks Friday night to the outdoor stage at Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga didn’t look like your everyday stagehands: burly men, facial hair more often than not, wearing just the color black.
The baby-faced teens and 20-somethings were rife with energy from 10 a.m. until midnight when the stage lights finally dimmed, getting an education via backstage classes. The architect of the Arts Related Technical Training for Entertainment Careers (ARTTEC), Sobrato High School media production teacher Gary Harmon, is facilitating 200 or so students this summer who are working with professionals at Montalvo to manage and coordinate an 11-week summer concert series.
“It’s a unique program, I believe the only one of its kind in the country that actually puts students to work on these projects and pairs them with professionals. The students have been really overwhelmed with the access they’ve had to these people and even though they might be a bit star-struck, they have been true professionals,” Harmon said. This is the first time ARTTEC has partnered with Montalvo.
As if working with Metallica’s sound engineer or the lighting designer for U2’s tour wasn’t awesome enough, the 20 students scheduled on “show-time days” are meeting recording artists to the tune of Smash Mouth, Soul Asylum, Vertical Horizon, Air Supply, The Tubes, Blues Traveler and Brian McKnight.
Students are paired, one-on-one with professionals through a variety of projects. Teaming with Montalvo was a natural move since the nonprofit is an active supporter of arts education, but students aren’t new to working on major projects with recognizable bands and celebrities. ARTTEC students have produced music videos (Eddie Money’s “One More Soldier”), a TV show that both PBS and A&E want to purchase, and a motion picture (First Dog, 2010) that was co-produced by Sobrato students and much of it filmed in Morgan Hill.
“I get comments almost at every show, that it’s a great idea. It’s a beautiful venue and how lucky are these students to have backstage passes and engage with the artists,” said Angela McConnell, Montalvo’s executive director.
Stephen Turturici’s left arm may have been a clipboard. It was tucked into his arm, a necessary new appendage to help him manage a crew and solve any minor or major disaster that day. The students, along with the 400 paying customers who came to watch Vertical Horizon with Kevin Cadogan, formerly of Third Eye Blind, were anticipating the night’s concert. Turturici is a 2008 graduate of Sobrato and alumni of ARTTEC now, one of six from Sobrato who have returned to mentor the next generation.
Turturici said he returned to work with his former teacher Harmon after finding out he could get more out of working on sets with ARTTEC than studying film at West Valley College. And despite Turturici’s path, ARTTEC students have gone on to standout programs in film, TV and production at some of the state’s top universities. A friend of Turturici’s and ARTTEC alumni has worked on the Showtime program “United States of Tara” and major motion picture “Water for Elephants.”
“Now he’s spending the summer in Rome,” Turturici said. “For most of the students here, that’s the end-game. This shows them they can do something fun for a living and not get stuck in a cubicle.”
“They jump in and take every opportunity. I just got an email from a student, ‘please, can I work this concert?’ They are chomping at the bit,” Turturici said.
Even though the students are interning for no monetary return – though school credit, food and free concerts aren’t a bad trade-off for teenagers – they’re getting access to professionals that hasn’t been done on this large scale, Harmon added.
A few ARTTEC students will tell you not all elements of orchestrating a concert are glamorous. Take the hospitality job; make sure the band is taken care of with food and beverages, and any other requests before and after the show. “Some bands are just trashy,” said Morgan Hill resident and recent Bellarmine graduate Matt Rebongo. He catered to The E Family Band a few weeks ago and said, contrary to his peers’ experiences, they were the easiest to clean up after.
Rebongo, 18, joined ARTTEC for the resume perks; he starts at Chapman University to study film in August. While he doesn’t plan to work on concert production per se, a grasp on the intermingling of sound with video with lights with stage set-up, and so on, is valuable no matter what area of multi-media Rebongo chooses.
At intermission after Third Eye Blind’s former guitarist Cadogan played with his new band (a debut, no less), ARTTEC promoted “Backline” the TV show that is scheduled to premier this fall on PBS or A&E. It’s completely produced by ARTTEC students and is a mix of Austin City Limits and MTV’s “Unplugged;” a band performs in an intimate setting and interacts with the audience, talking about their history as a band or about how songs were written, for example.
With about an hour until the opening band from San Jose, Northern Son, would play their first song, alumni Matt Altamirano was getting comfortable in the sound booth nestled among the trees at the back of the 1,200-seat amphitheater.
“Right now, I’m just trying to get Internet connection,” Altamirano said, removing his black hooded zip-up. Nearby student CJ Carlson and Stefan Gosiewski talk shop about the sound board. Altamirano is mentoring two students, but Gosiewski is a video mastermind – a producer of custom video design, animation and production for live events, film, TV and clubs – and he’s teaching Altamirano a thing or two about integrating video with live music. Gosiewski’s a good resource, just one professional highlight was producing Elton John’s 60th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden.
“This is a great value of this concert series and what Sobrato and Montalvo do. Because in the professional arena (the students) would be just loading trucks, and it would just be what you pick up. It wouldn’t actually be the ability to choose something, investigate it,” Gosiewski said. “Here they can directly apply what they’ve learned. They can leave here with things added to their multi-media toolbox.”
Gosiewski’s explanation matches Harmon’s effort. He worked in the industry, as director, producer and manager in the music industry and said he realized after a workshop at a high school while working in Los Angeles, that he enjoyed sharing his knowledge with young people.
“Seeing their eyes light up and their interest is so great because they’re finding something they enjoy doing and they can do for their entire lives,” Harmon said.
