(Ottawa – May 3, 2012) Approximately 500 local students along with the NAC Orchestra’s Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet will celebrate music education with a special 20-minute Music Monday performance on May 7, 2012, at 12:45 p.m. in Jean Pigott Hall at Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West. This concert marks the eighth year Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) has participated in Music Monday as part of one of its key objectives to promote music education in schools.

The free concert presented by the National Arts Centre will feature bilingual renditions of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and Halley’s Song for Canada, and will culminate at 1 p.m. when students at City Hall and in schools from coast to coast sing in unison the Music Monday theme song, Luke Doucet’s Tomorrow is Coming.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson is scheduled to appear at the event, during which he will declare May 7-13, 2012 to be ‘National Arts Centre Orchestra Week’ in the National Capital Region. National Arts Centre Orchestra Week is a high-spirited week-long series of events highlighting the role of the NAC Orchestra and its musicians in the local community. For more information about NAC Orchestra Week, please visit:  http://www.nac-cna.ca/orchestra.

The NAC Orchestra’s Rideau Lakes Brass Quintet (comprised of Karen Donnelly, trumpet; Steven van Gulik, trumpet; Donald Renshaw, trombone; Jill Kirwan, French horn; and Nicholas Atkinson, tuba) will join members of three Ottawa choirs (the Cantiamo Girls Choir of Ottawa, the Cantiamo Training Choir and the Ottawa Children’s Choir) along with their director Jackie Hawley, as well as students and teachers from several local schools for the performance. Participating schools include: Avalon Public School, Bayshore Public School, Blossom Park Public School, Counterpoint Academy, Featherston Drive Public School, Henry Larsen Public School, Joan of Arc Academy, March Academy, Robert E. Wilson Public School, and Roberta Bondar Public School.

Music Monday is an annual event organized by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this year. The goal of Music Monday is to celebrate the power of music programs in schools and highlight their importance through performances in communities across the country. In 2011, more than 1,700 schools and groups from across the country participated during the 7^th annual Music Monday. For more information, please visit: musicmakesus.ca/musicmonday/.

The National Arts Centre’s participation in Music Monday is made possible by support from the Friends of the NAC Orchestra. The NAC is proud to partner with the Coalition for Music Education in Canada for this event.

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 For more information, please contact:

Mary Gordon Communications Advisor, National Arts Centre (613) 947-7000 x 849 Mary.Gordon@nac-cna.ca