The John Adaskin Project (Canadian Music for Schools)

The work of the John Adaskin Project is described in this 1986 article. Shand explains the origins of the Adaskin Project’ s Canadian Music for Schools initiative, which seeks to increase Canadian content in school music programs to 25%, in this way helping new generations to explore and understand Canadian culture and identity. The Project has three phases. The first phase, involving research into published Canadian music, resulted in the publication in 1978 of Canadian Music: A Selective Guidelist for Teachers. The guidelist evaluates pieces of music based on their musical and technical aspects, and makes recommendations regarding the appropriateness of works for different classroom levels. The second phase of the project involves research into unpublished Canadian music, which has proved more challenging, as these works are not as readily available for classroom testing. The third phase of the project, involving efforts to expand the Canadian repertoire suitable for student performers, is ongoing and has resulted in several exciting collaborations and the publication of fourteen new works. Shand concludes by emphasizing the need to increase awareness among music educators of the diversity and value of Canadian music. Demands by teachers for this music might help break the cycle in which nervous music publishers avoid investing in this repertoire