Mervyn Warren - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Warren was born on a leap day (February 29) in Huntsville, Alabama, the son of Dr. Mervyn A. Warren, a university administrator, professor, and author, and Barbara J. Warren, a university professor who specialized in early childhood education. At age 3, Warren's mother taught him to read and to do basic math, which enabled him, later, to complete the first and second grades in one year. Upon beginning the 3rd grade, Warren's classmates, thinking he'd been "skipped" a grade, taunted and ostracized him for the next several years. During that time, he immersed himself in playing the piano, which he had begun under his mother's tutelage at age 5.

Warren briefly took formal, piano lessons at the ages of 6 and 10. In each case, he soon lost interest in the strict memorization and regurgitation of the required pieces, preferring instead to create musical variations on the pieces or to improvise upon them. As a result, each stint of weekly, formal lessons was short-lived. Still, he spent hours at the piano, daily, playing by ear.

As a child and teenager, Warren, whose parents are Seventh-day Adventists, was not allowed to listen to pop music or rhythm and blues. Instead, he grew up on a steady diet of easy-listening, contemporary Christian, classical, and choral music—from The Mantovani Orchestra to Edwin Hawkins to The Swingle Singers. Warren's family's home was adjacent to the campus of Oakwood University, which has a long and rich history of vocal and choral groups, many of which performed a cappella. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Warren heard such ensembles rehearse and perform frequently. Each of these elements would later combine to inform his unique musical palette.

In 1976, at the age of 12, Warren was grounded (punished) for having purchased the Earth, Wind & Fire album Gratitude. But in 2006—exactly 30 years later—Warren was asked to produce an Earth, Wind & Fire Christmas album. Although the project was postponed, the irony remains.

At age 15, Warren enrolled in a special, summer program at Alabama A&M University for high-school students with advanced proficiency in the sciences and mathematics. As a result of his performance in the program, the university offered Warren a scholarship that would cover all studies required to earn a Ph.D. in physics. However, lacking sufficient interest in the subject, Warren declined the offer. In 1981 Warren was the valedictorian of his senior class at Oakwood Academy. In the fall of the same year, he became president of the freshman class at Oakwood University.

Intending to attend medical school, Warren majored briefly in biology and mathematics. Though he excelled at both, he dropped both, having decided to pursue his true passion, music. Disappointed by Warren's decision, a professor of biology said to Warren, "You're wasting your mind on music."

Undeterred, Warren graduated summa cum laude in 1985 from Oakwood University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music with an emphasis in piano performance. At the graduation ceremony, Warren conducted members of the senior class, performing a song he'd written for the occasion, entitled "A Moment Like This."

In 1987, Warren received a Master of Music degree in Arranging from the University of Alabama, under the tutelage of noted jazz educator Steve Sample, Sr.