FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE NAMM FOUNDATION AWARDS COALITION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION GRANT TO SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC-MAKING PROGRAM
Grants Aim to Create More Music Makers
TORONTO, June 6th, 2012—The NAMM Foundation recently announced that the Coalition for Music Education was one of 21 recipients nationwide of the organization’s 2012-2013 grants program.
The NAMM Foundation allocated $445,000 in funding to support innovative community-based music learning programs that expand access to active music making and its many benefits.
The new grants, while only a small portion of the National Association of Music Merchant’s (NAMM) overall annual multimillion-dollar-reinvestment into the music products industry, help organizations operate programs designed to increase interest and participation in making music among teachers, seniors, college students and school-aged children. Since 1994, the NAMM Foundation has supported worthy U.S. and international music-making programs with more than 13.7 million dollars in grant-making support.
The grant will be used in part to support Music Monday, which is a core program of the Coalition for Music Education. It is the only nationwide festival that celebrates the benefits of music education in Canada and unites hundreds of thousands of children in song each year. The grant will also support Wise Voices for Music, a new Coalition initiative to engage multi-generational and multi-sectoral voices in communities across the country in order to develop local, provincial and national strategies to advocate for music education.
The Coalition for Music Education’s website, www.musicmakesus.ca, features a huge bank of free resources for music educators and young people to use for their advocacy efforts and to celebrate Music Monday each year. Bi-annually, a new song is co-commissioned with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from a well-known Canadian songwriter.The 2013 Music Monday song is being writeen by Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. Hadfield will perform the song from the International Space Station next spring.
Holly Nimmons, the Coalition’s Executive Director, said: “Thanks to the generous support of the NAMM Foundation, the Coalition for Music Education will be able to continue to develop Music Monday as our nation-wide celebration of music in schools and communities that will now truly “Fill the Skies with Music”. Through Wise Voices for Music, we will be able to more meaningfully root our work in communities, work more effectively with provincial partners and grow our national movement for music education with a strong youth action component.”
For more information about the Coalition for Music Education’s programs, please email info@musicmakesus.ca
For more information about the NAMM Foundation’s grants and scholarships, please e-mail grants@namm.org.
About The NAMM Foundation
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit organization with the mission of advancing active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs from the international music products industry. For more information about the NAMM Foundation, please visit www.nammfoundation.org.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Lora Bodmer
Public Relations Director
NAMM
760-438-8007, ext. 102
lorab@namm.org
