April 2024, The Global Z Recording Project successfully completed the pilot of an incredibly exciting project titled the ‘Frederick Circle of Musical Unity’ (FCoMU). We are thrilled to announce the launch of our next FCoMU project January 2026 in collaboration with Texas A&M University Kingsville’s Sound Recording Technology program!
PROJECT BACKGROUND
In the Summer of 2023, The Global Z Recording Project partnered with the educational arm of world-renowned Abbey Road Studios, the Abbey Road Institute (ARI, London, England) in support of FCoMU. This educational, collaborative project is designed to bring together Frederick County-based student composers, musicians and audio engineers with student producers and audio engineers from other cultures. Through the project, participants experienced collaborating in a hybrid project environment while recording an original composition using commercial-quality audio production equipment and cutting-edge remote recording technologies.
Two recent graduates from Frederick’s Academy for the Fine Arts (AFA) Music program as well as the audio engineer from Frederick County’s YMCA Y Arts Center Recording Studio served as Frederick’s audio engineers, while three advanced students from ARI served in dual capacity as audio engineers/producers. A song composed by two AFA students was selected by ARI producers to record. Behind-the-scenes footage was captured by students from the Hood College Broadcasting program, who produced a documentary video of the project.
THE 2023-2024 FCoMU PROJECT IS COMPLETE!
April 13. 2024, we held a Red Carpet Event at the AFA auditorium to celebrate the completion of our pilot Frederick Circle of Musical Unity project. The event was a smashing success featuring the world premiere of the project’s documentary video, a Q&A session with the student musicians, songwriters, engineers, and videographers, and a live performance of the project’s song, “All This Time.”
DOCUMENTARY VIDEO
ALL THIS TIME MUSIC VIDEO
We also produced a music video featuring the final master recording of “All This Time.“
2026 FREDERICK CIRCLE OF MUSICAL UNITY
January 2026, we are launching our next FCoMU project in collaboration with Texas A&M Kingsville’s Sound Technology program. The project will follow a similar format to our pilot project (please see the above documentary video for details). We are currently accepting song submissions from middle and high school students who live in Frederick County, Maryland. Submission deadline is December 20, 2025. The selected composition will receive a $200.00 gift card to Sweetwater Sound. For more information, please see the following link: Song Submission Information
2026 FCoMU SONGWRITER
pending
MUSICIANS
pending
FREDERICK-BASED AUDIO ENGINEERS
pending
TEXAS A&M KINGSVILLE PRODUCERS/AUDIO ENGINEERS
pending
VIDEOGRAPHERS
pending
PARTNERING INSTITUTIONS
pending
SPONSORS
pending