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 launched our current 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). An original Electro Swing composition written by high school student Madeline Ware has been selected for the project. We are currently reviewing student musician auditions to determine who will be selected to record the song. Students selected for the project will receive a $250.00 gift card to Sweetwater Sound.
2026 FCoMU SONGWRITER
Madeline Ware
MUSICIANS
pending
FREDERICK-BASED AUDIO ENGINEERS
Lucy Cavanaugh
Josh Newton
Tyler Gray
TEXAS A&M KINGSVILLE PRODUCERS/AUDIO ENGINEERS
Donald Woods
Jon Vasquez
Cooper Kennemer
VIDEOGRAPHERS
pending
PARTNERING INSTITUTIONS
Texas A&M University Kingsville
Frederick YMCA Ausherman Arts Center (YAAC)
FCPS Academy for the Fine Arts
SPONSORS
Audiomovers
Ausherman Family Foundation
Delaplaine Foundation
Frederick Arts Counsel
Harry Chapin Foundation
sE Electronics
Sloan School of Music
Sontronics
Sweetwater