Paul McCartney joins the Abbey Road Institute Global Graduation

From Abbey Road Institute Global Graduation 2024, June 19, 2024:

That’s a wrap! On Wednesday, 12th June, we celebrated our Global Graduation Ceremony 2024 in Studio One at Abbey Road.

We gathered with graduating students, friends, and family from all six of our schools in Miami, Paris, Sydney, Amsterdam, London, and Johannesburg. We celebrated the hard work and achievements of this talented and driven group of upcoming producers, engineers, and artists.⁠

This year, we changed things up. The Graduation Ceremony was held in Studio One, the world’s largest purpose-built recording studio, home to the recordings of Noel Gallagher, Little Simz, Harry Styles and more. In addition to acclaimed film scores including The Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Return of The Jedi and most recently Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. 

Setting the tone for the day was Abbey Road Institute CEO Luca Barassi:

“Each one of you has worked incredibly hard to be here today. You have embarked on a journey of many challenges, growth and creative development. We are here to recognise this accomplishment, to celebrate your achievement and to welcome you to the professional music industry.

What you did is not easy, and we are very proud of you.”

We were delighted to share supportive and celebratory video messages from our international teams and friends of ARI. Not only that, but we were also proud to mark the retirement of Abbey Road microphone custodian Lester Smith. He has been instrumental in supporting ARI, giving input to our curriculum, and sharing his expertise and knowledge. Lester has been part of the Abbey Road team for over 50 years and was joined on stage to receive special recognition for his service to the Studio from Sir Paul McCartney.

After the ceremony, our graduates were immersed in recording workshops at Angel and Abbey Road Studios, experiencing unique collaborative sessions under the expert guidance of Haydn Bendall, Peter Walsh, and Ricky Damien, amongst others. We concluded graduation week with a bang, with an after-party at the legendary music hotspot Egg, situated in the heart of London, to finish celebrations with an extra layer of fun and excitement!

Enjoy a selection of our personal highlights below. The full photo gallery can be viewed and downloaded through the link at the bottom of this blog!

Once again, congratulations, Class of 2024

About the Abbey Road Institute:

Abbey Road Institute is a specialist music production school and the training ground for the next generation of music producers and sound engineers.

Our foundations are the expertise and innovation created at Abbey Road Studios. Through collaboration with industry experts, we created a professional one-year Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering and a 5-month Advanced Diploma in Audio Post Production for Film and TV. In 2021, we moved into and reopened the historic Angel Recording Studios in Islington, near Kings Cross.

We work closely with engineers and producers to design and deliver a broad, hands-on, cutting-edge curriculum. This prepares you to launch a career in the music industry as unique as you are. A love of music and a passion to create unite our students and team.

You will learn from creative, cutting-edge producers, technical experts, business professionals and established and experienced names across the music industry. Studying at Abbey Road Institute is a life-changing decision and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Our graduates are the future of the music and recording industry and have received multiple nominations and awards, including Grammy, Billboard and MPG recognition.