MISSISSAUGA – On May 5, Music Monday, high school students from the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) are set to perform live at Metalworks, a world renowned recording studio.
Music Monday, created by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada in 2005, is an annual celebration of Canadian school music programs.
“Each year, the coalition asks music classrooms from coast to coast to participate in singing that year’s song within their schools in celebration of Music Monday,” Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute music teacher Lane Osborne told the Advertiser.
Students sing Hold On by Triumph in preparation for recording the song for Music Monday. Photo by Robin George
Participants sing and play the same song at the same time in a country-wide singalong.
“This event usually sees participation of hundreds of thousands of music students across Canada each year,” Osborne said.
Students from the UGDSB have been selected as one of a few choirs to help record this year’s anthem, Triumph’s 1979 hit song Hold On.
Triumph is a hard rock band from Mississauga that was popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s and inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
The band’s drummer, Gil Moore, established Metalworks Studio in 1978.
“Metalworks has an unprecedented number of top awards associated with the history of its operation and has seen many giants including Drake, Bruce Springsteen, Guns N’ Roses, Katy Perry, Prince, N’Sync, Demi Lovato, Tina Turner, and on and on,” Osborne said.
Other artists who have recorded at Metalworks include the Barenaked Ladies, Justin Bieber, the Black Eyed Peas, David Bowie, the Jonas Brothers, Metric, Christina Aguilera, Alexisonfire and Jann Arden.
“As a teacher, I never thought I’d get to use the studio this extensively,” Osborne said. “A dream come true for me, and the kids were equally thrilled to hear the news!”
UGDSB students with Gil Moore, Triumph drummer and owner/CEO of Metalworks. Submitted photo
They recorded their vocals for the Music Monday rendition of Hold On at Metalworks on March 7, and are set to return to the studio for a live performance on May 5. The recording will be available soon at coalitioncanada.ca.
The students involved are in Grades 9 through 12 and include students in the UGDSB MADE: Urban Arts program, the GCVI chamber choir, and a vocals class at GCVI.
These students include Erin Jimuro, Lukas Rose-Janes and Tuuli Quilley, who all live in Wellington County.
Jimuro and Rose-Janes are in the MADE: Urban Arts program, and Quilley is in GCVI’s vocals class and chamber choir.
MADE: Urban Arts is a semester-long alternative education program rooted in the belief that art is a tool for community building, cultural development and profound social change. It includes non-traditional arts such as performance, installation, video and digital, and is based out of the Guelph Black Heritage Society’s Heritage Hall.
Jimuro and Rose-Janes, in Grades 10 and 12 respectively, said they were excited for the opportunity to record at Metalworks because they are interested in pursuing careers in acting and film.
From left, Grade 10 GCVI student and chamber choir member Tuuli Quilley, Grade 12 MADE: Urban Arts student Lukas Rose-Janes and Grade 10 MADE: Urban Arts student Erin Jimuro. Photo by Robin George
“I’m excited to see everything they do behind the scenes” to see how everything is produced at such a big production company, Jimuro said.
Rose-Janes said he’s particularly excited for the opportunity to record at Metalworks because it is a historic recording studio with “a long story attached to it.”
Quilley said she has been singing, dancing and playing accordion and piano since she was about four years old and she hopes to have a career as a musician, so the opportunity to record in a professional studio feels very significant.
While both Jimuro and Quilley are attending GCVI, they noted their home school is Centre Wellington District High School – but they’re attending GCVI to participate in it’s IB Prep program, which is currently being phased out.
“It’s great that people from out of district can come to this school,” Jimuro said.
“Coming to GC was a really good decision,” in part because it opens up opportunities such as recording this year’s Music Monday anthem at Metalworks.
“Osborne gets the best opportunities,” Quilley added.
