Juno Awards 2025: MusiCounts brings sweet sounds to Vancouver’s John Norquay Elementary School​on March 21, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Over at John Norquay Elementary School on Slocan Street, teacher Ruby Ba and her students are hitting the right notes thanks to a grant from MusiCounts.

MusiCounts is Canada’s music education charity associated with CARAS, the non-profit Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences behind the Juno Awards. The organization provides schools and community groups with grants of up to $20,000 for instruments, equipment and resources to give children access to music education.

The charity also gives professional development to 30 emerging artists and music pros through the RBCxMusic First Up program, as well as providing resources such as 450 scholarships to those looking at careers in music.

“I’m very lucky that I get to teach music at Norquay, because a music program is very hard to provide,” said Ba. “When I was looking at our available music instruments, I realized that we did not have enough of them and sought out MusicCounts for a $5,000 grant for traditional elementary instruments like ukuleles and percussion instruments, and also to build an Indigenous drums collection. It was a great kickstart for any school that wishes to build up a music program.”

Ba teaches music to all 650 students in the K through Grade 7 school, and has brought in instruments such as recorders in 2024. Owing to limited resources, the school doesn’t have a beginner band. Instead, she works on training beginner curriculum and playing. She has seen the fruits of her work first-hand.

“Some students have come back to visit and have told me that they are involved in choir or band and invite me to their school concerts,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to see them continuing their studies after they leave Norquay.”

Organizations such as the Royal Conservatory of Music note that neuroscientists have produced evidence that learning to play an instrument, sing and read music improve childhood cognitive development in a number of ways. Elementary school students in higher-quality music education programs had a 20 per cent improvement in standardized tests for English and math. Other benefits of musical learning have been compiled in a useful download at rcmusic.ca.

One beneficiary of the training is Norquay seventh-grade student April Wong who enjoys learning songs that her parents suggest on her ukulele. While music is fun, math is her favourite subject.

“We’ve played the recorder and this year are getting into the Orff instruments,” said Wong. “I also play piano and am at Grade 8 (Royal Conservatory of Music) and am currently taking theory classes hoping to get to Level 10 in my piano. Most of what I play is very flowing and graceful, but in many different styles.”