Worcester Tech students help with graphics including for guitarist Di Meola

WORCESTER —  If not for a near-death experience and a concert ticket error, Peter Stearns may not be living out his dream come true: Working with guitarist Al Di Meola.

A graphic communications instructor at Worcester Technical High School, Stearns and his students have been designing and printing T-shirts for the musician for several of his shows over the last year.

“It's probably the most fulfilling graphics job I've had,” Stearns said. “It's also really cool to pull the students in on it.”

Born in Miami, but raised in Worcester, his parents' hometown, Stearns attended Burncoat Middle School. He fell in love with music and met teachers, including guitarist Joe D’Angelo, who helped him perfect his craft and discover new artists such as Di Meola.

“He was always telling me…always have that backup career or job or plan because everybody is going to be a rock star and… it’s about a bazillion rock stars in the unemployment line,” Stearns said. “So he was a huge influence on me.”

Stearns’s love of music would take him to Berklee College of Music in Boston for a couple of years, but the price to attend was too expensive, leading him to a graphic arts program, during which he found work.

From there he would go on to get married, have kids and eventually become a teacher at Worcester Tech.

“Since I became a teacher 14 years ago, everyday, I get up and I like my job,” Stearns said. “I love the kids because even at that age they still have that innocence to them.”

Stearns’s love of music has been able to carry over into his job at Worcester Tech, like running a guitar club for students who are interested in the instrument, or introducing students like 12th-grader Jayden Rojas to Di Meola.

“He's a phenomenal guitarist,” Rojas said. “One of my favorite songs for him is, ‘Race with the Devil on the Spanish Highway.’ That's one of his ideal songs to listen to.”

Worcester Tech students

Rojas, who is currently working at a co-operative focused on graphic design, was impressed with the final product the students made for Di Meola.

“The final product was phenomenal,” he said.

Despite Stearns being a longtime fan of Di Meola, he had never seen him live until a couple of years ago, when he tried to purchase meet-and-greet tickets.

But there was an issue with the tickets and Stearns was redirected to Di Meola’s manager who was trying to help resolve the issue.

He said he told her that he wanted to meet the guitarist, but the manager said that the meet-and-greet tickets had been sold out.

“We got to talking and it turns out her husband actually had a near death experience with his health,” Stearns said. “So she said, ‘Find me when we get to the show and my husband will go talk to Al.’“

Three years ago, Stearns had a subarachnoid hemorrhage burst, sending him into emergency surgery where doctors had to “cut the head open” and insert “a micro spring.”

Understanding where Stearns was coming from, the manager’s husband kept to his word and spoke with Di Meola, helping arrange the meeting between the teacher and musician.

For an hour, between spoonfuls of chicken noodle soup — his post-concert tradition — Stearns and Di Meola talked about, among other things, his music and time at Berklee, which Di Meola also attended.

T-shirt design

At the end, just as Stearns was leaving, he decided to take a chance and tell Di Meola and his manager about his work as an artist and the T-shirt design and printing capabilities at Worcester Tech.

He didn’t think he would ever hear back from the pair, but six months later he was surprised by a phone call from Di Meola’s manager who was looking into putting in an order for T-shirts for one of Di Meola’s performances.

Stearns and his students got to work, taking the design Di Meola’s team wanted, putting them on a T-shirt, printing them off and sending them to him in time for his performances.

Since the first batch, the group has fulfilled several other orders for the musician including for a concert in his native San Francisco and a show in Dallas, Texas.

The room in Worcester Tech where the students designed and printed the T-shirts is equipped for a multitude of services including embroidery, printing business cards and stickers, and sign and banner design.

Recently, students designed and printed custom candy bar wrappers for Valentine’s Day in an effort to raise some money for the department.

While they sometimes like gigs like the job for Di Meola, many of the jobs they get assigned are for things like designing and printing uniforms in other vocational shops in the school.

Opportunities to do things like they did for Di Meola is not only a change in pace, but the chance to do “something important,” said 11th grader Jordan Marrero.

“We're used to doing smaller stuff like shop uniforms, so doing something so important was definitely very cool,” she said.

Hands-on work

For Javon Hargrove, another 11th grader who wants to be a graphic designer, it was an opportunity to do some “hands-on” work.

“I like to do stuff and like to have steps and get my hands dirty,” Hargrove said. “Because at the end, it turns out to be a good product.”

Fellow 11th grader Emily Rivera said it was “cool” to see the teachers get passionate about the work they were doing.

The opportunity to work with his students on this project was extra special, Stearns said.

Although they may not have taken to Di Meola’s music the way Rojas has, he was happy they were excited to get on board and help make the shirts a reality.

And while he and Di Meola may not be texting back and forth, he has been able to see him several more times since they met, usually getting decent seats for his performances.

Stearns said that once the guitarist returns from international tours and has free time, the pair, as well as Di Meola’s manager, will sit down and “get some sketches going.

“I'd love to put my love into a design and really show, like, 20 different designs that just reflects the man that I listen to everyday almost,” he said. “So we'll see. We'll see.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester Tech students help with graphics including for guitarist Di Meola