Sylvia Moy Foundation - Masterpiece Sound Studios

Mission Statement

The SYLVIA MOY FOUNDATION is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of the Estate of Sylvia Moy LLC dedicated to supporting Rhythm and Blues music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development courses. The Foundation seeks to form an alliance with a college or university to offer a variety of sound recording, music, and multimedia production courses at Masterpiece Sound Studios located at 1611 Webb in the City of Detroit, a facility owned by the Estate of Sylvia Moy LLC and to be leased to the educational institution (the “Alliance”).

Masterpiece Sound Studios was founded by Sylvia Moy in 1973. It is a one stop, state of the art commercial audio/visual recording studio that is fully equipped with the latest technology in the recording studio industry, with new and expanded service offerings that include Audio Production, Songwriting, Music Videos, and Multimedia Services. Sylvia Moy was Motown’s first female producer/songwriter of numerous internationally acclaimed hits, such as “My Cherie Amour”, “This Ole Heart Of Mine”, and “It Takes Two”. Moy is the musical genius behind as many as 150 other renowned Motown hits. Since its founding in 1973, Masterpiece Sound Studios has worked with grammy nominated and winning artists, and has produced certified gold and platinum recordings.

The Alliance seeks to collaborate for the purpose of offering a variety of sound recording and music production courses to be held in-person at and/or remotely from 1611 Webb St. in Detroit. The courses are expected to include, but not limited to, courses in The Business of Music, Music Recording, Sound Production, Songwriting, Videography and Documentary Production. The proposed courses will be for beginners, and intermediate students interested in becoming audio engineers, songwriters, music producers, composer arrangers, and videographers. Students will learn the fundamental principles of audio engineering on a professional-level console and recording equipment inside a recording facility personally built by Sylvia Moy, and will be taught by well-known accomplished music industry professionals and industry-experienced Alliance instructors. Upon successful completion of our courses, students will receive Certificates of Course Completion, and may be eligible for internships with the Alliance!

Prior to receiving a Certificate of Completion, each student will be required to create a new and unique music recording rendition of one of 10 Motown and/or R&B songs, selected by the Foundation. The rendition of the song to be recorded by a student must be in a genre also pre-selected by the Foundation, such as classic Motown, Blues, Latin Rhythm, Country Western, Native American, European, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc. The Alliance will help to discover new talent and jumpstart new careers of its students and performers, and will provide course graduates with the credentials they need to compete for jobs in today’s music and entertainment industries.

Alliance students will be immersed in a learning environment that is a busy, in-use professional recording facility utilized by experienced sound engineers, mixers, musicians, and artists. Through practical application, Alliance students will actively use the software, hardware, consoles, microphones, and equipment.

Alliance ideal class sizes will consist of 10-15 students at a time to allow for greater interaction between instructors and students while creating a real sense of teamwork when running an audio/visual/multimedia production session from start to finish. The time learning inside our facility will be not only intense but time well spent. The curriculum will be designed to work for anyone's active life with most courses taught during the day or evening hours, weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Midterms and finals will be judged by a panel of 3-5 judges that will include Moy LLC members and Alliance instructors, and various legendary Motown songwriters, artists, and producers.

Moy LLC has developed a 1 year and 2 year course curriculum, proposed program budget, proposed charge per credit hour. The Foundation and Alliance will also jointly seek philanthropic support to fund program expenses including student scholarships. Over the next five years, the Alliance will work to identify, cultivate and solicit individual, corporate, and foundation prospects whose giving guidelines and previous support align with the pillars of this program. It is our intention to seek and secure the necessary philanthropic support for program expenses which we estimate will be $160,000 annually. Additionally, we will leverage Sylvia and Celeste Moy’s music industry relationships. Celeste Moy has had promising conversations with well-known people and corporations with great capacity, that have expressed interest in supporting the Alliance.

The college or university that joins the Alliance would enter into a lease with the Estate of Sylvia Moy, LLC for approximately 1,500 square feet of space, plus additional rent by the hour for use of Masterpiece Sound Studios. The property is located at 1611 Webb, Detroit, MI 48206. The proposed lease would be for an initial 5-year term with two 5-year options to renew. Floor plans of the leased space are available upon request. Photos of Masterpiece Sound Studios, bios and sample creative works of the Audio/Engineer, Music Video Producer, Multimedia Producer, and Brand Developer are available on the Masterpiece Sound Studios website: masterpiecesoundstudios.com

Mission Statement

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