The Score | Dream to Reality

One of conductor Kent Nagano’s long-planned projects got underway this fall, with the official launch of La musique aux enfants (Music for Kids), a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten music program at the École St-Rémi Annexe in Montreal. Imagined by Nagano and developed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with Université de Montréal and the Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île, the project aims to use music education to improve the children’s overall development. All 161 students in the program will receive at least one lesson in rhythm and choral singing per week and will have the opportunity to participate in activities with music and the musicians of the Montreal Symphony. A subgroup of sixteen children will receive close to three hours of piano, violin, rhythm and choral singing instruction each day, while a different group of sixteen will receive one and a quarter hours of daily music instruction. Researchers from the Université de Montréal will study the program’s impact.