A Day To Remember: Celebrating The Class of ‘19

Last month we were excited to welcome our graduating students from all over the globe to our annual graduation ceremony. Hosted at Abbey Road Studios the day kicked off with the diploma ceremonies in the legendary Studio Two. The backdrop of such an iconic space was perfect for CEO Luca Barassi to greet the audience of students and their close family and friends. Luca was followed by Programme Director Carlos Lellis, who talked about how proud he was of our students’ achievements and the joy and passion he hopes graduates bring to careers doing what they love.

Each student from all of our schools in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Melbourne and Paris was invited up on stage to receive their diploma, with loud cheers of support from our guests. Class photos were taken for the graduates and their guests to take away as a key memory of the event. The evening continued as everyone moved across to Studio One for celebrations with their guests, school staff, and invited members of the industry. The festivities were hosted by graduate Ed Shaw who brought back his stage chops from his days performing in West End productions. Universal Music ’s COO David Sharpe addressed the crowd and gave inspiring words to the graduates. Recent Universal signing Marie White, winner of Glastonbury’s emerging talent award 2019, treated the crowd to an inspired set. Ed reflects on graduation and what it meant to him in our interview below.

Hey Ed! Great job MC’ing. Tell us a bit about how you ended up at Abbey Road Institute and what your musical path was before that.

I ended up at Abbey Road Institute coming off a career change from musical theatre to music production. I picked up an injury on the West End that meant I had to make a switch. The passion for music was in me since I can remember and I’d been exploring its many avenues since then. I played around with Logic Pro whilst studying at theatre school and I still made tunes whilst being a cook in  Peckham. The chef’s life was not for me though and my mum told me to go back into education and study music. I was recommended by a fellow classmate to check out Abbey Road Institute. We both ended up starting in September 2018 and the rest is history.

How did it feel for you to receive your Diploma certificate in such an iconic room?

Receiving my diploma in studio two was definitely pretty cool! But even better than the room were the speeches, I loved hearing from our Programme Director Carlos Lellis.  What a guy. It was also a highlight of my day to see my mum enjoy the prosecco 🙂 I was enjoying celebrating with my mum and girlfriend and taking it all in. They’ve been pretty influential on my journey back to doing what I love so I was just lost in the moment shall we say.

What was it like serving as MC?

Being MC took me back to my theatre days. My ego has missed standing in front of people! I had a lot of fun and I am honoured that the institute asked me to do it. It was certainly a special highlight of my life.

What are your plans now that you’ve graduated? What are you doing for work?

I am working in two studios, Blank Media as a writer, engineer, assistant and in Denmark Street Studios as an engineer. I’m also working in quality control of deliverables at FX Rentals. I check producers, mixers, and masterer’s deliveries for Warner and Universal. I rent my own studio in Bermondsey where I do what I love, which is writing music and working with artists.

Check out this years’ video highlights showreel here. Head over to our Facebook page for the Global Graduation photo gallery.  And find out more about what it’s like to study music production at Abbey Road Institute here.