Showcase Concerts
The Coalition for Music Education holds annual Music Monday Showcase Concerts – signature events meant to capture the spirit of Music Monday across the nation. In 2012, the Showcase Concerts will be in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Vancouver, British Columbia.
On Monday, May 7, over 1100 students from several schools in the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board will take part in a lunch time concert at Membertou Trade and Convention Centre.
Multi-award winners, the Barra MacNeils (http://www.barramacneils.com/) will join the students on stage to sing a well-known and loved favourite, Coaltown Road. They will also join in singing the Music Monday song, “Tomorrow is Coming”, by Juno-nominee Luke Doucet. The Music Monday song was co-commissioned by CBC & the Coalition for Music Education.
As a group, the six MacNeil siblings are widely regarded as one of the greatest live concert acts in the Celtic world. Hailing from Sydney Mines, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, the family group is deeply rooted in Celtic music, culture, dance, language and history. Their numerous critically acclaimed recordings have included their own original songs as well as tried and true standards, both instrumental and vocal.
Music Monday Sydney is locally supported by the Cape Breton-Victoria
Regional School Board, Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Long & McQuade, Cape Breton Post, CBC-Cape Breton.
Vancouver Showcase
The Music Monday concert in Vancouver will feature student performing groups fromVancouver, Coquitlam, Langley and New Westminster. Champion Chuck Currie will also attend the event in his chef’s whites together with several other “uniformed professionals” – firefighters, lawyers, bus drivers etc who took music in school and still play for pleasure. Local media personality “Red” Robinson will serve as the MC and Maestro Bramwell Tovey, Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, will conduct massed performances of Tomorrow is Coming and the National Anthem.
