Grand Canyon University’s worship program to release first album

PHOENIX — People all over the country will soon have a chance to hear music from worship students at Grand Canyon University.

The Christian university’s worship arts program is about to release the first album in its two-year history.

“This is the first full-length album that the worship arts program has released,” GCU Recording Studio Manager Eric Johnson said.

“Grand Canyon Worship 2016” will be released on April 12. It features 10 songs performed by GCU students, including eight that were written by students at Grand Canyon.

One of the tracks, “Follow You,” was released as part of an EP after the program’s first year and climbed to No. 37 on the iTunes Christian singles chart last year.

Grammy- and Dove Award-nominated songwriter Jeff Pardo produced six of the songs.

Johnson said the students are well on their way to landing careers in the music industry or becoming worship leaders.

“We have several students that have formed bands, and they’re already playing at live concerts and have songs on iTunes,” he said.

And there’s more to come: The program will release an album on vinyl later this year.

“The vinyl is going to purple, which is GCU’s school color,” Johnson said.  “So we will have purple vinyl album available in the fall.”

KTAR’s Lauren Grifo contributed to this report.

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