The Coalition for Music Education was Canada’s first music education charity, created in 1992.

Created as a grassroots organization when representatives of more than 20 music education organizations came together to share ideas to improve the state of music education in Canada. The Coalition quickly began working with educators, parents, industry representatives, and other concerned citizens to address concerns about music in schools.

In 2024, the Coalition broadened its mandate to include raising awareness of the importance of music education and music engagement, and the benefits that it brings not only to young people, but throughout our lifespan.  Each year, more than 275,000 students participate in our national programs.

Our Vision: We envision a country where everyone’s life is enriched by quality school and community music programs, and where their active engagement in music is valued and supported.

Our Mission: To raise the awareness and understanding of the role that music engagement plays in Canadian culture, and to promote the benefits of music participation.

ABOUT US

The Coalition for Music Education in Canada is a national organization dedicated to ensuring that every young person has access to quality music education. For over 30 years, we have worked with educators, parents, artists, and community leaders to strengthen and protect music programs in schools across the country.

Our Impact

• Students: Each year, our programs and initiatives reach more than 250,000 young people, giving them opportunities to discover their voices, build confidence, and grow through music.

• Educators: We provide resources and advocacy that support over 2,000 music educators annually, helping them sustain vibrant music programs in their schools.

• Communities: Music Monday brings together more than 200,000 students each year, and reach millions more through media coverage, making it the country’s largest national celebration of music education.

• Policy & Advocacy: We mobilize music communities in times of need to speak up for music education. Our work with school boards and governments has led to stronger protections for music programs, ensuring thousands of children each year continue to have access to music learning.

Music Education Matters

Music education develops creativity, discipline, empathy, and resilience. These are skills that extend far beyond the classroom. We see the difference it makes when a child finds their voice, gains confidence through performance, or experiences the joy of creating something together.

Our Commitment

We are committed to advancing, supporting, and protecting music education in Canada. Together with our partners and supporters, we are shaping a future where music is valued not only as an art, but as a powerful force for learning, connection, and community.

We believe that music is key in learning and in life and it is our goal to see that all children have access to a meaningful program in music through their schools.

Our story began in Exeter, Ontario in 1980. Doug Ellison, at that time, a secondary school teacher who had developed a love for travel and saw it as important part of education – left his teaching career and opened a business running student tours. Four decades later, Doug and the Ellison Team have expanded into other travel divisions and 3 office locations (Exeter and London, ON; North Vancouver, BC) employing over 100 people today across Canada … and after 40 years, haven’t looked back! Now into the second generation of the family business, Marcie Ellison Outerbridge, Paulo and Michelle Branco are taking over the leadership of the Ellison Team – sharing Doug’s love of people and places, and his vision of opening minds and hearts through travel.

As a Full-Service Travel Agency and Tour Operator, Ellison Travel & Tours is a unique travel company – with in-house brands focused on Vacations & Cruises, Business Travel, Customized Group Tours including Student Travel. Ellison is one of the few Canadian owned and operated companies that specialize in fully customized tours – typically customizing over 600 tours each year both internationally and within Canada. With divisions curating special interest tours such as Women’s Travel, Senior’s Travel, Musical Performance, Culinary & Wine, History, Battlefield & Remembrance and other areas of interest – the depth of expertise of our travel professionals is unparalleled, and our passion for travel is contagious.

Ellison is one of the largest Canadian travel agencies, loyal to its roots and has all the advantages of a small-town business: friendly, personal attention, long-serving employees and excellent service. We are a company that prides itself on our people and relationships, our commitment to safe and responsible travel and enterprise, and our ability to adapt and innovate through continuous advancement of technology and forward thinking.

We hope to share our passion for travel, people and places with you.

At Empire Music, we strongly believe that music is an essential part of a rounded education and a foundation for many life skills and ongoing enjoyment. Our team is made up of music educators. We are committed to offering you the best products, customer service and value in the industry.

Founded in 1948, we have spent more than 60 years in the music industry and understand the importance of the best quality educational instruments and accessories at the best price.

In 1979 we changed our focus and decided to concentrate our efforts exclusively on elementary music education. We have since become Canada's leading choice in elementary educational music instruments and accessories and have increased our customer base to include preschools, churches, daycares, libraries and care homes.

We are the exclusive Canadian distributor of many quality instruments from highly regarded manufacturers including: Aulos Recorders, Suzuki Educational Instruments, and the EMUS Educational line. We also offer a selection from other suppliers: REMO, Meinl, Nino, Ohana, and Groove Masters Percussion are a few of the well-known brands we carry. In addition to the large selection of elementary educational music instruments we carry, we also publish a number of books for recorder, ukulele and early childhood music.

The Kamloops Music Collective (KMC) is a registered charitable organization that works to support the music ecosystem in our community.  We offer year round music programming, and encourage participation in music making opportunities in Kamloops. Additionally, we work in partnership with local music educators and other arts organizations to help build strong programs that contribute to musical vibrancy of Kamloops. The Kamloops Music Collective works year round to build partnerships that support the music community in Kamloops and simultaneously works to develop and deliver unique, grassroots programs which meet the needs of our community. 

The KSBC is a branch of the Kodály Society of Canada and seeks to uphold the vision of our national society.

In addition, we strive to bring together a community of musician educators in British Columbia who share the vision of a universal music education based on the principles of Zoltan Kodály and best practices of Kodály-inspired educators from the 20th and 21st century.

We seek to discuss, discover, and enact the best quality music education for our current context in British Columbia and in Canada.

Long & McQuade Musical Instruments was formed in 1956, when Jack Long set up a small store on Carlton Street in Toronto on the second floor of a house.

Long, who has a degree in Music from the University of Toronto, was a professional trumpet player in Toronto, and thought he could sell instruments to some of his friends in the music community.  His first official product line was King Band Instruments, which was followed by many others.

The store's floor was later divided into music studios so that Long could teach trumpet lessons on the side. About 6 months later, he rented out a room to a local drummer named Jack McQuade, who used the space for drum lessons.

In 1957, both Jacks decided to open up a small retail store on Yonge Street and named it Long & McQuade Musical Instruments. The partnership continued until 1965, when McQuade decided to pursue drumming full time and sold his portion of the company to Long.

Long & McQuade began expanding in 1968 and has continued to do so. Currently there are over 100 Long & McQuade stores across Canada, as well as an online store that opened in 2008. The company employs over 1,800 musicians and contracts approximately 1,000 music teachers across Canada.

To this day the entire company is still 100% owned by the Long family. While Jack is still involved as an advisor, his sons Steve and Jeff now run the day-to-day operations.

THE LOCATIONS

Store Locations
Long & McQuade is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in Canada, with over 100 locations from British Columbia to Newfoundland. This means that if you're a touring musician, you'll have the benefit of dealing with a familiar store with consistent sales, supplies and service, no matter where your homebase is. To find out more about our locations or find the closest store to you, click here.

Music Lesson Centres
Many of our locations now offer music lessons in piano, guitar, bass, drums, woodwinds, strings and voice. Our Music Lesson Centres feature comfortable studios, qualified instructors and affordable lessons for all ages, levels and styles.To find out more about our lessons or find the closest lesson centre to you, click here.

THE SELECTION

Selection Of Musical Instruments & Equipments
Long & McQuade is famous for our variety and range of musical instruments and professional audio products. Whether you're looking for a flugelhorn or the latest Special Edition Gibson guitar, you'll find it with us. You can enjoy the convenience of seeing and comparing various options all under one roof and can often walk away with your product of choice.To view all our departments, click here.

Used Instruments Bought and Sold
Have you outgrown your student-model flute? Are you looking to upgrade your guitar gear? Bring in your used instrument and we may put the value toward your next purchase, or we buy it from you outright. Through our rentals, trades and purchases from customers, we have a wide selection of "previously enjoyed" products at great prices and with 90 day warranties. To find the best deals on products from all of our stores check out our Products on Special.

Rentals
Long & McQuade is the place to rent, whether it's for a day, a week, a month or more. Think of us for parties, weddings, sporting events or weekend gigs. Renting is a great option if you only need the product for a short time or you'd like to try out an instrument before buying it. We also have special rental and rent-to-own programs for schools - ask our staff for details! To learn more about our rental program, click here.

Canada's Largest Print Music Retailer
Between our Print Music Divisions at our Vancouver and Toronto locations and print departments all across the chain, we are able to meet your sheet music needs - from anywhere in the country! To see our selection of print music, click here.

THE SERVICE

Repairs and Service
Our ​​service departments have some of the most qualified electronics and instrument technicians out there. You'll appreciate the convenience of needing only one place for all of your sales and repair needs. To learn more, click here.

In-Store Financing
Long & McQuade's in-store account services department and flexible, competitive financing options, ensure that you can walk out the door with the instrument of your choice in hand. To learn more, click here.

The Long & McQuade Performance Warranty
Long & McQuade provides our customers with a FREE one-year Performance Warranty on most of our products. This policy provides our customers additional warranty coverage within the first year that they will not usually get from a limited manufacturer's warranty.

Non-Commissioned Salespeople
No hard selling here. At Long & McQuade, you can be confident in knowing that you are getting unbiased, expert advice that is truly best for your needs, not the needs of the salesperson.

Support Staff
Need professional help? Our trained staff can answer the simplest to the most difficult of your questions - what strings does your guitar need, to what software will allow you to record an album at home. After all, we're here to help.

Customer Service Standards for Customers with Disabilities Accessibility Plan
For our Customer Service Standards Accessibility Plan please click here

Specializing in Musical instrument repairs, rentals, and sales in Vancouver/Burnaby and abroad since 2001. Whether you need cork grease or guitar strings, are looking to purchase an instrument, or need any servicing from a minor adjustment to a full professional overhaul, we have you covered.

MUSICFOLDER.com manufactures choir, band, and orchestra folders and customizes them with names, logos, numbering...and has shipped to 40 countries over the last 30 years. Right now we are exceptionally busy and also in the final stages of transfer and commencing production of the folders of a US company (Deer River Folio) that we have acquired and demand is outweighing out current production capacity despite producing over 5000 folders/month, with many folders frequently out of stock. Your best option is to pre-order in good time for your folders, or immediately purchase from our much-higher-than-usual stock of near-perfect folders that didn't pass our final quality check for negligible cosmetic issues. We'll be selling these, discounted, at the booth and answering all your questions. Visit first for best choice.

Open Doors Travel specializes in customized group tour packages for travel enthusiasts looking for educational themed travel experiences. Our experienced guides help adults and students alike navigate this beautiful and amazing planet with compassion and understanding. This stance goes far with setting up a harmonious relationship within the group setting to set the stage for unforgettable journeys and memorable experiences.  We are a “one-stop-shop” with unrivalled know-how on travel options, consistent high level of service and attention to detail throughout the collaborative process from start to finish is our goal.  

The SCA's BFA Music & Sound program is renowned for its innovative and experimental approach to music creation.  

This is an intensive program for those wanting to dive deeply into new ways of making and imagining music and sound, and to drive those discoveries through a generous dose of curiosity.

Our program seeks to empower those who don’t want to make music that’s already out there, and who want to form their own weird niche as part of a diverse community of alternative musicians. This is a program that makes real space for taking risks, channeling unique visions, and cultivating supportive community. Students come to our program from a vast array of different musical backgrounds and create a vibrant scene in which connections are regularly made across wildly different practices.

Our courses are designed to support students building a rigorously eclectic toolkit suited to their own expanding practice and to constantly evolve their tools, approaches to process, scope of creative possibilities, and their relationships to the worlds in which their work lives. We put great emphasis on collective spaces that challenge and foster this growth – students are regularly immersed in each others’ work-in-progress and play an active role in supporting each other in those processes.   

Projects often mix elements that can involve sound installation, custom-built instruments, traditional instruments, DIY electronics, radical performance, mixed-instrument groups, amplified objects, or musical robots (to name just a few). The constellation of elements each student chooses to focus on emerges by their own design and often takes unexpected turns over the course of the program.  

Given our position within an interdisciplinary contemporary art school, students have the rare opportunity to share active space with filmmakers, dance artists, performance creators, and visual artists, often leading to uniquely innovative approaches to collaborative and trans-disciplinary art making.  

The Royal Canadian College of Organists is the national voice for the organ and its music in Canada. We support and promote the organ music community through learning opportunities, professional certification, communications and advocacy. Everyone is welcome in our community from beginner to professional organists, composers, organ builders and organ music fans.

COLLEGE CENTRES provide local activities and events and are located in cities and regions across the country. Click here to find the one nearest to you.

EXPLORE this website to discover the rich range of College activities – for example, try Education to check out Scholarships and Prizes. Or check out the latest news (opposite) for news and upcoming National events and deadlines.

WE’RE PROUD of our long history (over 100 years) and are dedicated to promoting and sustaining excellence in organ music, coast to coast.

Our world craves music, and its rich variety. From the subtle strains of Mozart to the new style of Arcade Fire, we celebrate life, passion and joy through music. We are captivated by music, and its creators and players.
At Trinity Western University, you can step into a career in music that fuels your creativity and builds your talent. The breadth of the program allows you to study music education, performance, church music or general music.
Our choral program has gained an international reputation, through frequent performances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and on CBC Radio, in concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, and touring to China, Korea, Eastern Europe and the Ukraine. Instrumentalists play with a concert band or jazz combo, various chamber music ensembles or orchestra.

The UBC School of Music programs nurture agile, collaborative, thoughtful, informed, and innovative musicians through exploration of a range of musical practices and ideas that are crucial in the interconnected global environment of the twenty-first century. We see studies in music as a lifelong process of discovery and creative expression. In everything we do we demonstrate music’s broader connections to culture, identities, social justice, health and the environment.

We recognize that sharing all sorts of music brings meaning, inspiration, and creativity to us and others. Our programs foster local and global musical citizenship through coursework, performance, personal mentoring. We prioritize a student-centred approach while building a school community that respects all musics—that of Indigenous and settler traditions, as well as the musical cultures that resonate with our diverse student body and the varied communities we belong to.

At the UVic School of Music, our dynamic programs and expert faculty create a vibrant environment for both undergraduate and graduate students to thrive.

Whether you're pursuing music as your calling or your creative outlet, you'll find supportive classes, one-on-one studio instruction, and countless opportunities to collaborate, perform, and grow.

Find your voice, sharpen your skills, and discover your edge at UVic’s School of Music!

Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada.

The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Recent guest artists include Daniil Trifonov, Dawn Upshaw, James Ehnes, Adrianne Pieczonka, Gidon Kremer, Renée Fleming, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Bernadette Peters, Tan Dun, and more.

At VYMF, we believe that music has the power to transform lives. Our mission is to make high-quality music education accessible to all—regardless of age, background, or financial means—while fostering the next generation of musicians and music educators.

At the heart of everything we do is our belief that music should be accessible, affordable, and a source of inspiration for all. Whether through performance, education, or community engagement, we are dedicated to shaping a future where every young musician has the opportunity to thrive.

Find out more about what we do

World's Finest^® Chocolate is the sweetest way to bring profit to your organization and smiles to your community.

We pride ourselves in providing the easiest fundraising program in the shortest amount of time.

We continue to lead the fundraising industry with our experienced fundraising specialists, exceptional customer service and premium products.

We provide the best value in fundraising and are committed to helping you achieve your fundraising goals.

Are you ready to plan a successful fundraiser?

At WorldStrides, we enable people of all ages to learn and grow by creating immersive experiences that engage the world around us. Whether our students are diving into new cultures abroad, taking center stage at iconic music venues, taking part in our career exploration programs, or connecting with our shared human history, our educational travel programs foster unforgettable experiences and countless life-changing moments.

Yamaha Music Education programs began in 1966 in Canada and the Yamaha Music Education System has an enrolment of approximately 10,000 students taught by over 160 teachers in 50 locations from coast to coast. The National Education Department for Yamaha music education in Canada is located at 135 Milner Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. All national Yamaha programs are developed in conjunction with the Yamaha Music Foundation in Japan.
Yamaha Canada also owns and operates a corporate Yamaha Music School in Toronto. This flagship location is the national R & D centre and teacher training facility for Yamaha.