Music Monday 2010
May , 2010
tags: Coalition for Music Education, Music Education Advocacy, Music Monday 2010, Music Monday Canada
by J. White
700,000 students across Canada are united in song on Music Monday, May 3, along with 27 international schools for the first time. Dalton E. Tucker Primary in Southampton, Bermuda was the sole Bermudian participant.
Global simultaneous performance underscores importance of music education
SOUTHAMPTON, BERMUDA, May 4, 2010 – More than 700,000 students from over 2,000 schools in every province and territory across Canada are today celebrating the sixth annual Music Monday – a nation-wide, simultaneous concert to celebrate the importance of music in our lives – and especially in our schools. This is the first year for Music Monday to ‘go international’. Students and teachers from global communities took their music programs outdoors into their communities and perform the same song at the exact same time, uniting the entire world.
This is the sixth year of the originally Canadian movement and for the second year, the theme song for Music Monday is “Sing Sing,” written by multi Juno-award winning Canadian artist, Serena Ryder.
New this year is the Music Monday Showcase Concert that will be held in downtown Vancouver as a symbol for the hundreds of celebrations taking place in communities around the world. Also new is a partnership with Ticketmaster Canada who have donated $40,000 in cash and in-kind support. In addition to sponsoring the Music Monday Showcase Concert, Ticketmaster will award 10 participating Music Monday schools from across the country with $2,500 to support their music program.
“We are honoured to be partnering with the Coalition for Music Education in Canada – a valued national organization committed to ensuring quality school music programs,” said Ticketmaster Canada COO, Tom Worrall. ”Ticketmaster recognizes the importance of keeping music education alive for our young people, and we are proud to be supporting Music Monday.”
Music Monday was created by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada in 2005 to celebrate the importance of music in our schools. The now, world-wide celebration highlights the need to protect and enhance quality music programs for every child in schools everywhere. Music Monday is fast becoming a global phenomenon as the event is now being celebrated in Australia, across the United States and in countries such as Nigeria, Qatar, Belgium, Costa Rica and here in Bermuda.
“Music education is a powerful tool for engagement (resulting in students staying in school and being positively directed), harmony, creativity and achievement in young people,” says Coalition for Music Education in Canada Executive Director, Ingrid Whyte. Recent research in education shows that students who receive comprehensive, sequential music instruction achieve better results in their core subjects of literacy, mathematics and science. The schools participating in Music Monday are among the fortunate, as most of them have music programs. Unfortunately, many students don’t have music programs in their schools due to funding cutbacks and lack of resources. “The benefits of music education go far beyond the classroom – music fosters imagination, creativity, discipline and achievement in our young people,” says Whyte. “The skills they learn through music and the arts in our classrooms today will help develop skills in an economy that is increasingly dependent on creativity.”
Photos of Dalton E. Tucker Primary students participating in Music Monday are available on www.facebook.com/musicmondaycanada
Further information is available from Ms. J. White, Music Teacher or Mr. G. Thompson, Principal, at the school.