(Ottawa – Friday, May 3, 2013)  Approximately 300 local students will participate in a nationwide earth-to-space Music Monday concert as they join their voices with Chris Hadfield, Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, and children across Canada in a celebration of music education. This special Music Monday event will be hosted by Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson on May 6, 2013 at 12:25 p.m. in Jean Pigott Hall at Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Avenue West.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. EDT, Commander Hadfield and the students will sing the official Music Monday theme song entitled I.S.S. – Is Somebody Singing/ Quelqu’un Chante. Commissioned by the Coalition for Music Education and CBCMusic, the song was written by Commander Hadfield – the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station – and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies. I.S.S., also the acronym for International Space Station, premiered on CBC Music on February 8, 2013 and was the first space-earth song premiere in world history, with Commander Hadfield performing on the International Space Station and Robertson and the Barenaked Ladies on Earth.

The free concert will also feature bilingual renditions of To Young Canadians, a recent composition by local composer James Wright based on a letter written by former Canadian Leader of the Official Opposition Jack Layton, and Sing Out, a fun and energetic piece by David Julian Michaels.

Presented by the National Arts Centre, three Ottawa choirs (the Cantiamo Girls Choir of Ottawa, the Cantiamo Training Choir and the Ottawa Children’s Choir) along with director Jackie Hawley, will join students and teachers from four local schools for the performance. Participating school choirs include Goulbourn Jubilee Juniors, Henry Larsen Public School, Joan of Arc Academy and March Academy.

An annual event organized by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, Music Monday  celebrates the galvanizing power of music in Canada, and demonstrates how that power is rooted in school music programs. In 2012, more than 600,000 participants participated in the eighth annual Music Monday, and the event has inspired similar initiatives in the U.S., Australia, the U.K.. and Hungary. For more information, please visit musicmonday.ca.

The NAC’s participation in Music Monday, now in its ninth year, 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.

For more information:
Carl Martin
National Arts Centre
613 947-7000, ext. 560
Carl.Martin@nac-cna.ca