When Hannah Jenkins first heard about a recording contest at Point Park, the, singer/songwriter knew she had to enter.
She prepared three of her original songs to submit for her demo, and soon received an email that she was one of the three finalists.
A week later, she learned that she was the first winner of the Pioneer Records competition, leaving her in tears just moments before work.
“I’m so excited to get started,” said Jenkins, a sophomore Sports, Arts, and Entertainment Management (SAEM) major. “Singing and songwriting is my favorite thing in the whole world and the fact that Ed and everyone liked my music enough to be their first signed artist makes me feel so lucky and honored.”
Jenkins will begin recording her EP (Extended Play) soon at Red Caiman Media studios, a Pittsburgh recording studio located across the street from CONSOL Energy Center in Downtown. There, producer Jesse Naus, will be producing Jenkins’ three song EP.
All of this is extremely exciting to Jenkins. She explained how winning this competition couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for her. This is because the thought of transferring to a different school had crossed her mind a few times because of the lack of singing she was doing at Point Park.
“I was so heavily involved with chorus and voice lessons in high school,” said Jenkins. “So coming to Point Park and them not having a music program at all was really tough.”
Jenkins has always loved singing, but what really molded her love for singing, music and performing was watching the popular singing show, American Idol, from such a young age. She has never missed an episode to date!
For her Pioneer Records demo, she submitted three original songs titled, “Something Out Of Nothing”, “Illusions” and “I Deserve Better Than That”. She recorded all the vocals and guitar parts herself on her laptop.
Her songs are typically written about whatever she’s feeling at the time, or what’s relevant in her life. She’ll even write about what someone else that she knows is going through, according to Jenkins. However, genre wise, she considers herself to be a “pop” singer/songwriter.
“I feel as though I feel things a lot heavier and stronger than a lot of people,” said Jenkins. “So I’m so lucky that I have songwriting as an outlet.”
After receiving an email from Ed Traversari, associate SAEM professor, informing her that she had won the Pioneer Records competition, there was an overwhelming amount of congratulatory responses coming her way regarding the news. She had family members and roommates posting about her on all different social media platforms.
Her aunt, Kaycee Jenkins, posted a screenshot of the email on Facebook that [Hannah] Jenkins received informing her that she had won the competition, writing a caption, “Way to go Hannah Jenkins! So proud of you!” to accompany the photo.
Her mother, Donna Jenkins, also shared the screenshot on the popular social media outlet to extend just how proud she is of her daughter for this accomplishment.
Even one of her roommates, Emily Carlson, tweeted the screenshotted email to share with everyone and congratulate Jenkins publicly.
Now that Jenkins has won the competition, she will get recording time at Red Caiman Media studios, 300 copies of her new EP and a record release party on campus in the spring.
For this EP, she plans to record three more of her original songs. The songs she will record will be different from the songs she submitted for her demo. Although which original songs she will record are unclear at the moment.
“I hope someday I can touch and inspire people with my music the way music has touched and inspired me,” said Jenkins.