The day the music died is not just a lyric repeated in Don McLean's “American Pie," but it is something actually happening in our community.
Sudbury Arts Council is concerned about the decline of post-secondary musical education in Greater Sudbury and its catchment area, made more urgent with the announcement Cambrian College is closing its first-year program.
Another casualty, the only four-year music program at a Northern Ontario university, was cut at Laurentian University as it restructures.
The value of music is essential for our young people. The study of music helps students with math, language and social skills, brain development, concentration and memory.
"The future belongs to young people with an education and the imagination to create": Barack Obama.
The community that values the child with a talent or desire to learn music or other arts is nurturing a child with options for a well-rounded future.
In the last two decades, post-secondary programs in music and the arts have created a rich foundation to grow Sudbury's art scene.
The city wants and needs to attract educated professionals. Their families generally have an interest in arts and culture.
Sudbury Arts Council questions how Sudbury can attract professionals and their families into our region without the arts and quality arts education.
Arts Council board member Diana Holloway is a graduate of the Laurentian music program. She was privileged to study in her hometown. She made her life here rather than in southern Ontario. She says, "I am a performer as well as a private music teacher, and I can tell you many of my former students have gone on to national and international careers in music. Others learned the discipline to pursue careers in science, medicine and education."
Sadly, in 1995, the elementary and secondary school system began to remove art and music specialists from our school system. Of course, this led to a decline in post-secondary students at Cambrian and Laurentian.
Faculty and staff, many who play with the Sudbury Symphony or contribute to events such as Jazz Sudbury, face unemployment and career insecurity. They will leave the community and there will be no one to fill the void.
As defenders of the arts, Sudbury Arts Council wants to bring this crisis to light as it affects the members of the symphony and young entertainers as well as pop and classical musicians. And ultimately every citizen who values the arts.
The cultural landscape of our city is being drastically affected as many of those who are interested in theatre, music, film and all forms of creative endeavours will have reduced opportunities to study, to enjoy and to practise in many cultural realms.”
The community must be forward thinking and create a think tank to save music and other arts programs.
Vicki Gilhula
Secretary
Sudbury Arts Council