From left: Terry Palmer, (Terry Palmer Services); Ben Fowler, (Producer/Engineer and P&E Wing Committee Member); Steve Durr, (Owner, Steven Durr Designs and P&E Wing Committee member); Vickie Perdue, (Acoustics In A Box/Perdue Acoustics); Jay Perdue, (Acoustics In A Box/Perdue Acoustics); Larry Droppa, (API President/Owner); Jon Randall Stewart, (Singer/Songwriter/Producer and The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter President); Jeff Balding, (Producer/Engineer and P&E Wing Sub-Committee Chair); Julian King, (Producer/Engineer and P&E Wing Committee Member); Chuck Ainlay, (Producer/Engineer and P&E Wing Committee Chair).
Photo: Frederick Breedon/WireImage.com
The recording facility at Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet School opened on May 8 with the first API 1608 console in a high school setting. Many important names in the recording industry rallied to show their support of the “Music Makes Us” initiative by welcoming the new studio, which will serve almost nine hundred students this year alone.
Built in 1986, the Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet High School is located in north Nashville and is the sole entertainment magnet school in the country, offering courses in everything from audio engineering to television broadcasting. With the hard work of the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing members and a partnership with the Warner Music Nashville label, this world-class facility is the home of the first ever student-run record label.
The API console will serve as a major part of the school’s Academy of Entertainment Management and Academy of Entertainment Communication divisions. Students will learn audio production from song creation to production and on to distribution.
The Recording Academy P&E Wing as well as Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Senior Vice President of A&R for Warner Music-Nashville Scott Hendricks, and API President Larry Droppa were among some of the attendees at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the expert-designed $1.2 million multi-room facility and control room.
“What a tremendous opportunity it is to have such a facility in a high school,” said Droppa at the introduction. “API is honored to have placed a 1608 as the centerpiece for audio education in the Pearl-Cohn school. Our ongoing commitment to support young and upcoming students in audio engineering is well represented by this, the first high school anywhere to have a 1608.”
For more information, visit www.apiaudio.com.
