BC Lower Mainland Festivals and Competition List

Thanks to Christie Smith at Long & McQuade for putting together this list of competitions and festivals for 2008/2009. This information sheet in pdf format includes festival dates, application dates and other contact information for more than 18 festivals and competitions here in BC.

Click Here to view the list of festivals and competitions

Research Briefs - Did you Know?

Here are some Music advocacy shorts to jump start your New Year.
From the AMC website - Research Briefs: Did you Know?

• Middle school and high school students who participated in instrumental music scored significantly higher than their non-band peers in standardized tests.
  
• Students who were exposed to the music-based lessons scored a full 100 percent higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner.
• Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school.
• A McGill University study found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period.
• High school music students score higher on SATs in both verbal and math than their peers.

Source: www.amc-music.org/research_briefs.htm

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone. Alas our Christmas Vacations are now over and all of us are getting back to our regular schedules. Everyone in BC is still trying to get used to having snow, now on the ground here in Vancouver since mid December. Best wishes to everyone for 2009.