WIU’s Shumate Records with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios

August 22, 2019

MACOMB, IL – Since the appointment of Penelope Shumate, Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University in the School of Music in the fall of 2014, she has performed as a soloist consecutively each year at Carnegie Hall or David Geffen Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York.

This fall, she will return for her 15th solo appearance at Carnegie Hall. This summer she made her debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London as a soloist on a recording of “Messiah” at historic Abbey Road Studios under the direction of Maestro Jonathan Griffith of Distinguished Concerts International New York. Abbey Road Studios has hosted recording sessions for iconic bands such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd, and has also been the location for film music recordings including “Star Wars”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter”, among many others.

This summer, Shumate also made his debut at the Wayne Theater Ross Performing Arts Center in Virginia with a recital of Opera Arias, Art Songs and musical theater selections, and for his third consecutive season, with the Muddy River Opera Company in the ‘Illinois, she played the role of Laurie in “The Tender Land”.

Shumate was recently selected as the winner of the American Prize in Vocal Performance and the Chicago Oratorio Award. At WIU, Shumate was honored as the 2018 recipient of the Provost Award for Excellence in Scholarly / Creative / Performance / Professional Activities.

For two consecutive years, she was also the recipient of the Dean’s Award of Excellence of the College of Fine Arts and Communication for Scholarly / Creative / Performing Activities (2017 and 2018).

The accomplishments of her WIU singing students include selection for international and national vocal training programs, prizes and entries in singing competitions, including Metropolitan Opera National Council and NATS auditions, hiring for professional and performance assignments to the WIU, the selection as winners of the School of Music Aria / Concerto Competition for 2018 and 2017, performing leading and supporting roles in the main stage productions of the Opera, is performing as soloists with university ensembles, Opera Workshop and Student Showcase Convocation concerts, and receiving vocal grants.

For more information, visit penelopeshumate.com.

Posted by: WIU News ([email protected])
University Relations Office

It’s the most enjoyable night in the UK music industry – with its most deserving winners.

The A&R Awards in association with Abbey Road Studios will return for 2019 in November in London.

Presented by MBW, the event will be hosted at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden – on the evening of Tuesday, November 5.

Once again, the UK-focused ceremony will recognize the industry’s finest achievement across multiple genres, with three additional special moments:

• The Sir George Martin Prize. Named after the legendary Beatles producer, this award recognizes someone with a proven track record of truly artist-friendly A&R – combined with commercial success;
• The Artist Loyalty Award, which celebrates a long-standing relationship between an industry leader and an extraordinary artist who have supported each other through thick and thin over the years;
• The A&R Icon Award, introduced to a person whose actions were truly a game-changer for the creative side of the UK music industry, and whose influence continues to reverberate today.

Individual “A&R of the Year” awards will be presented in distinct genre categories including Electronic / Dance, Hip-hop / Grime, Pop / R & B, Adult Contemporary, and Rock / Alternative.

Elsewhere, there will be Songwriter and Producer of the Year gongs – elected by a panel of the world’s industry’s most influential A&R personalities – in addition to an A&R Director Award.

The new awards for 2019 will include a Song of the Year award – honoring the songwriters and publishers behind the A&R community’s favorite hit of the past 12 months – in addition to The Artist To Watch award, which features in the spotlight an artist who is set to become great in 2020, presented in partnership with Vevo.

The team’s awards will include two categories of Publisher of the Year, in addition to Major Label of the Year, Independent Label of the Year and Management Company (aka the David Enthoven Award).

Platinum and Gold tables are available for purchase today, but are expected to sell out quickly. (Fair warning: Platinum tables are completely sold out at the end of the summer of last year, so please book early to avoid disappointment.)

Check the official 2019 A&R Awards website here for details and send an email [email protected] to lock your tickets.

To learn more about our other A&R Awards sponsorship opportunities, please also contact [email protected]. A series of fantastic sponsors will be announced in the coming weeks.

“We are delighted that Abbey Road is supporting the A&R Awards for a fourth year, as it is the only event of its kind to celebrate the achievements of the A&R community – the people who are the lifeblood of our industry. “

Isabel Garvey, Abbey Road

MBW is proud to present the A&R Awards in association with Abbey Road Studios, which becomes the event’s main partner for the fourth consecutive year.

Isabel Garvey, Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios, said: “We are delighted that Abbey Road is supporting the A&R Awards for a fourth year, as it is the only event of its kind to celebrate the achievements of the A&R community – the people who are the lifeblood of our industry.

“Whether it’s writing, recording or mastering, we’ve seen amazing talent come through our doors over the past year, so we’re thrilled to see the A&R teams recognized in this way. “

The 2019 A&R Awards finalists will be announced in a few months, selected by Music Business Worldwide’s global network of renowned industry executives.Music trade around the world

Norwich-based post-rock band MARLA are set to release their brand new EP on March 31.

The EP was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London after one of their demos was found in the hands of a studio sound engineer.

“This EP represents our transition to a more innovative and progressive sound, avoiding rock conventions that really tire,” says MARLA.

“We recorded these songs before we started working on our current album, we hope that will prepare people for it.”

Formed in 2012 at the initiative of their original bassist, MARLA was inspired by the early influences of Foals and Jack White.

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After the departure of their founding member and the arrival of their new bassist Ryan Williamson, the band continued their path towards a more experimental post-rock sound.

Alongside the EP, MARLA is currently recording an ambitious new album scheduled for release at the end of 2019.

• For more Norwich music, check out our dedicated page every Thursday in the Eastern Daily Press and Norwich Evening News or follow Enjoy Music More on Twitter and Instagram

“Mary queen of scots”, the period drama about the life of Mary Stuart, played by Saoirse Ronan, and that of her English cousin Queen Elizabeth I, played by Margot Robbie, may mark the directorial debut of Josie Rourke, but as director of the prestigious Donmar Warehouse in London, where she has directed acclaimed and groundbreaking productions, she is no stranger to sound and music.

“In the theater, sound is so important,” she says. “One of the most basic functions of a director is to tell whether an actor on stage can be heard. So we spend a lot of time thinking about the acoustics, but also about how music works in a scene. And while film is such a visual medium, I think music and sound are even more important in films, and how you use them to help tell the story.

Rourke says his initial vision for the soundtrack was inspired by the music of composer Max Richter – “and in particular his famous Vivaldi piece” The Four Seasons Recomposed, “which breaks down a famous work and reassembles it in a way that lets you hear it renews, and also connects the past and the present. And it’s also able to bring out a deep and deep emotion of what is essentially minimalist music. That’s why I wanted it for that, and why he was perfect.

Rourke also worked closely with a sound team that included sound designers Ian Wilson and Alastair Sirkett, and re-recording mixers Steve Single and Andrew Caller.

Wilson and Sirkett split their work between Scotland and England, “to help realize a hearing difference,” Wilson says.

“Al also handled the main battle as he had more time to focus on this with Chris Dickens, the editor, as it visually developed in the montage of the image.”

For a temporary mix, the team then used the new Mix Stage at Abbey Road Studios. Single and Wilson produced three temporary mixes during the image editing period, Single using the Avid S6 console for dialogue and music, and Wilson using an Avid S3 for its effects. While preparing for each temporary mix, the team worked in Dolby Atmos Pro Tools 7.1.2 sessions and folded via Spanner to 5.1 in the tracks to feed the temporary mixes. “This meant that we always moved the temporary mix adjustments and editing work to the final mix,” Wilson adds.

For programming reasons, all premixes were made at Pinewood Studios, near London, and the effects were mixed by Pinewood Caller’s resident mixer in the Dolby Atmos room.

The final mix at Abbey Road lasted three weeks. As Single recalls, one of the main challenges was “how to approach two very different styles of music in Atmos. Max Richter’s score suited the film’s wide range of emotions and drama perfectly and directed the film, and in that sense Atmos is a perfect format for this music.

But the historically-sourced music, composed by William Lyons, presented a different challenge. “Trying to process this music, which uses real period instruments, like we did with the score was just not realistic,” Single says. “We had to be focused and guided by where the band or instrument lived in the scene and that meant ‘monoising’ a lot of elements. Based on this, we used the “object” option in Atmos.

For example, to match John Rizzio’s violin to his movements throughout certain scenes, we treated his violin recording as an “object,” allowing him to follow his every move. This increased the reality of all source clues. The combination of these two very different styles was both the most stimulating and the most enjoyable aspect of the mix.

“Working on the sound mix has been one of the most creative experiences I’ve ever had,” says Rourke, citing a scene where Mary and Lord Darnley, a suitor, are walking outside. “We have the sheet music of Max playing, and when they stop and Darnley walks up to hug Mary, we also turned off the music and turned up the natural sound – the wind in the grass, the birds singing – and as he made physical contact, we let it all go. , as if each creature was holding its breath. It’s subtle but so powerful.

(Pictured above: Director Josie Rourke with actors Margot Robbie and Joe Alwyn)

World-famous Abbey Road Studios, where many of the Beatles’ most popular songs have been recorded, are looking to support musical innovation through technology and recently hosted their first hackathon event.

The studio runs a musictech incubation program called Abbey Road Red. The November event brought together 100 attendees to explore new ways to use technology to create and consume music.

Participants – comprised of programmers, technologists, developers and music producers – were given a number of questions to guide their creations, including “How will artists create music in 2030?” And “Can you play or create music using emotions to trigger different sounds, samples, parameters or effects?”

The teams were supported by Abbey Road engineers and judged by an industry panel made up of judges from Universal Music Group and Abbey Road Studios, as well as Microsoft and Miquido, the official event partners. .

The participants had 24 hours to develop their ideas, and in the end the best two were awarded by the partners.

The Miquido award went to HRMNI, a collaborative musical instrument that allows users to participate in a jam session with their phones, while the Microsoft award went to Rapple, a virtual combat rap opponent.

“One of the main questions of the hackathon was, ‘Could you train the AI [artificial intelligence] play music and jam with you? ‘ Said Kilian Schulze-Forster, one of the team that developed Rapple. “Google has developed a jam bot that can play melodies and we have found an app that turns a short vocal recording into a rap-style song.”

Inspired by these findings, the six-person team (all doctoral students) developed an AI-based rap fight opponent that listens to the user’s words and responds with their own punchlines.

“We focused on rap because it is easier to manage for voice recognition systems than singing vocals. The product idea for an inspiration and lyric writing training tool stems from the fact that we are all musicians and know what it feels like to be stuck writing songs, ”a said Schulze-Forster.

According to Karim Fanous, innovation manager at Abbey Road Red, the hackathon was designed to build bridges between ideas and future technologies in the music industry. “With the hackathon, we wanted to try to foster and explore innovation on a more nascent and fun level – to inspire new developers and artists to inspire us and the music community at large,” he said. -he declares.

An atmosphere of innovation and collaboration is also underlined by Schulze-Forster: “We have learned a lot from the scientists, developers, designers and mentors around us, especially on project management and communication for such an intensive project. Everyone was approachable and happy to help.

“A team has developed a drum computer, which is controlled by the user’s face. You can play a rhythm by moving your mouth, eyes, eyebrows, and so on. It is not only fun, but also an innovative idea as a user interface for people with disabilities who want to play music.

He added that while the entire team are busy with doctorates, they are determined to continue working on Rapple together. “We want to develop it from the current prototype state to a functional product,” he said.

“This includes making his punchlines more meaningful, as well as letting him rap with a nice rhythmic flow. We could imagine making this a long term application and would like to keep in touch with Abbey Road in this regard.

According to Fanous, the hackathon has also been set up so that Abbey Road Red can “explore the level of ‘pre-incubation’ and how we can help.”

“For incubation, [usually] we like startups to have an element of maturity. Ideally, our founders will be close to developing some sort of accessible technology or bringing a product to market – that’s when we can help the most. However, sometimes we worked with founders who had just had an idea, when we believed in their potential to make it happen.

Abbey Road Red runs a six-month incubation program and takes 2% of the capital of participating startups.

“We want to support the music industry with the value we provide to the incubator. We take a very small amount of equity. We are trying to help brilliant founders usher in the next set of technologies universally adopted by the industry, ”Fanous said.

“It’s not about betting on spreads, it’s about researching, learning, thinking about what’s going to have an impact and finding the people who are going to have that impact.”

Noel Gallagher said he was mistaken for his brother Liam as he walked past Abbey Road Studios in London.

The rocker, who was at Oasis with his brother for years until their rowing split them up in 2009, also revealed that he has already started working on his next solo album.

Since leaving Oasis, the guitarist has released three albums with his solo project High Flying Birds by Noel Gallagher, including his latest album, Who Built The Moon? in 2017.

Speaking at the Q Awards, where this record was nominated in the Best Album category, he told the Press Association that he had already started recording a follow-up.

He said: “I’ve been in the studio before.

“I was at f ****** Abbey Road for two weeks and passed this zebra crossing every day to be recognized.

“Tourists walked barefoot. Still no one has stopped.

“I got pulled over once by a black cab driver who walked by and was like ‘okay Liam? “”

The Beatles recorded almost all of their albums and singles at the famous Abbey Road studios between 1962 and 1970.

Oasis, notable fans of the Fab Five, recorded the 2008 album Dig Out Your Soul and 1997 Be Here Now there.

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Gallagher, who is also nominated for Best Solo Artist at the Q Awards, added that he was not fazed by the mixed reactions to his latest album.

He said, “I don’t think any record I’ve ever made has been universally appreciated, other than Definitely Maybe. Many people hated this one more than they hated the last.

When asked why he thought that was the case, he replied, “Because these are f ****** idiots. What else could it be? “

Gallagher, who was accompanied to the awards ceremony by his wife Sara MacDonald, also said he enjoys the process of music creation more than ever.

He said, “When you are young everything is in front of you. Now, with a little bit of time behind me, it’s different.

“How many records are you going to make?” When you’re in the studio, you have to give it your all. I love it. I love him now more than ever before.

The awards, hosted by the music magazine in association with Absolute Radio, will see a host of stars being honored at the London Roundhouse at Chalk Farm.

Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers, rapper Professor Green, Mercury Wolf Alice Prize winners, singer-songwriter Nadine Shah and Brett Anderson of Sweden were among the stars on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony.