Meet our 2025 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year nominees — next up: Robert Colbourne from St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award, presented by Anthem Entertainment, is happily celebrating its 20th anniversary recognizing and honouring exceptional Canadian music teachers each year.

Tune in to the 2025 JUNO Awards on Sunday, March 30 where the winner will be announced, and on our website & social media platforms @MusiCounts.

What is the music program like at your school? How did the MusiCounts grant make an impact?

I teach at Holy Heart High School in St. John's, Newfoundland and our school music program consists of both a choral and an instrumental program. I run the choral program and my colleague, Mary Brennan, runs the instrumental program. Our choral program consists of two choirs (inclusive, open to anyone, for credit): our low notes choir (non-auditioned) who would like to sing tenor and bass repertoire, and our trebles choir who wants to sing soprano and alto repertoire. We also have another choir, which is an SATB-auditioned ensemble, called our chamber choir, which meets after school. In our instrumental program, we have a concert band, jazz band, and string orchestra. We also offer music courses in guitar, a general music course for students who would like to improve their performing skills, a piano course and two of the courses that I teach are the AP and IB music theory.

I was very lucky early in my career to teach in some small communities in rural Newfoundland. In three of the schools that I taught at, I applied for Band Aid and was successful in receiving three $10,000 grants for each of the schools. In one of the schools in particular, when I went there wasn't a music program in grades 7 through 12. There had been a K to 6 program that was run by a general teacher, not a music specialist. So when I was hired, I was to come in and teach music and bring it up into the high school. There were no instruments in the school, we didn't have anything. So I applied for the grant and luckily we did receive the grant, and I was able to buy some concert band instruments. We started a beginner concert band for grades 4, 5 and 6 students. Then we also purchased some accordions and some guitars. Being in a small rural community, the accordion was an instrument that was passed down through tradition, through generations. We made a folk group called the Fatima Academy Accordion Group, and within a couple years, that group actually produced a professional CD and was on local radio. They also went to Disney Magic Music Days in Orlando, Florida and performed live on the stage there.

So all of those things wouldn't have happened had we not had the support of MusiCounts and the Band Aid grant, in order to be able to purchase those instruments.

I should also say that one of the people who learned how to play guitar by getting that Band-Aid grant, he went on to have a real passion for music that he didn't know he had. He has since been nominated for a JUNO Award. It was a couple years ago, he performed with the group Rum Ragged and they were nominated for Folk Album of the Year.

Wow, that's so cool. So what does it mean to you to be nominated for the 2025 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award?

To be nominated for the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award, it was quite an honour. First of all, the honour came from someone nominating me, and taking the time because it's quite an extensive process to nominate someone for this Award. My former students and colleagues came together and put together a nomination package. When I found out the news, I was extremely excited. I think it means a lot to me, especially coming from Newfoundland and Labrador, where we have such a strong, rich musical history here. So for me to be nominated this year, I feel like I share this award not just with my own students and my school, but also it's kind of highlighting the fact that we have such wonderful programming here in Newfoundland that is supported and students can get music education right from K through 12. So I feel like not only is it an honour for me, but I feel like it's an honour for all of us here as one community to be able to highlight all of the wonderful things that so many great music teachers are doing here in the province.

That's so true, and congratulations again. Do you have a music teacher or mentor that inspired you?

I like to tell this story about how I was inspired to get into music. When I was very young, growing up in the early 80s, there was a Canadian TV show called Size Small. The main character, her name was Miss Helen, used to sing and play music with all the puppets and the characters that were on the show. I remember there being a record that used to dance and sing, and I remember that as a kid being a little bit strange. I remember going to my mom and I said, "Someday I'd like to make music just like Miss Helen". So she looked up music teachers in our local area, got me some piano lessons and then a few years later some voice lessons. So I always tell this story because none of my family members were musical. No one had done any music lessons or anything. I was the first in my family and it was all because I wanted to be just like Miss Helen.

One of my biggest mentors were my private teachers. I took lessons from a gentleman named Mr. Tony Stevenson who was a huge impact in my life musically, both in piano and voice. Then when I went on through university, my voice teacher Dr. Jane Leibel who was extremely supportive and I learned so much from her. Dr. Caroline Schiller, who I also work with. The choral conductor at the university where I did my undergrad, Dr. Doug Dunsmore, he was a huge inspiration for me.

But I feel like probably the biggest inspiration for me as a music teacher came from my school music teacher, Ms. Anne Whelan. She was my elementary school teacher at first, then as I went up through the grades, she changed positions and went from the elementary school to high school. So I kind of had her my entire life, from grade 2 right up on through grade 12. I remember watching her conduct our choirs when I was in high school, and I used to go home and practice in the mirror just pretending like I was her conducting a choir and really enjoying everything she did. She was so close with us, she cared deeply for all of her students and she gave a lot of extra time. She was so musical that very much inspired me. Later on in life, when I became a private music teacher, I actually became her daughter's private music teacher so it was full circle. Now her daughter is just starting teaching music in the province.

Wow, that is such a cool story. It's really nice to hear that you wanted to be a music teacher from the get-go, at a very young age. I feel like that's kind of rare for a lot of people. The first career that people discover is not what they end up being, but you got it the whole way, which is the ideal dream.

People who say to me, “I have no idea what I'm going to do when I go to university” and that [was] so weird for me. My wife was like that at first, but for me it was just what steps can I take the next step, to the next step to do this job. It's just been one step after another just so that I can become what I am today.

Exactly, and the fact that you discovered it on your own, too, really that means it was meant to be. And so the next question is, what are you looking forward to doing at the 2025 JUNO Awards in Vancouver?

I am so excited to go to the JUNO Awards! First of all, I'm really excited to meet the other nominees because we've gotten to introduce ourselves through email but I really look forward to talking with them, talking a little bit of shop, as well, doing some sharing of best practice while we're together, but also enjoying each other's company. I mean, obviously we have things that are very much in common, so really looking forward to forming some new friendships.

I'm really excited to go to Vancouver because in Newfoundland and Labrador, in March it’s winter. At the end of March in Vancouver, I believe it will start to become Spring a little more, so I'm looking for the good weather.

I'm also very excited that Michael Bublé is the host of this year's JUNOS, and I'm going to try my very best to get a picture with Michael Bublé while I'm there. That's going to be my goal, because a lot of my students are actually very big fans of his. So, I told them that when I go, I'm going to try my best to meet Michael Bublé and grab a picture so we can put it up in our choir room at school.

*Interview condensed for readability.