MusiCounts is thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2022 MusiCounts Band Aid Program! To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we’re taking the celebration nationwide by diving deep into the program’s investment in each region of Canada, looking at both the impact we’ve made over time and the challenges we’ll tackle in the future. We’ve announced the recipients from the Atlantic provinces, Central Canada, and the Prairies and Western Canada, and today we’re sharing the exciting news in the North.

MusiCounts is awarding $83,000 to 6 schools in Northern Canada. The deserving recipients are listed below. Over the course of 25 years, MusiCounts has invested $756,000 to 71 schools in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.

Young people in remote Canadian communities face substantial barriers to accessing music in their schools; the landscape of Northern Canada presents a unique challenge. For many of the schools in remote communities that receive funding from the MusiCounts Band Aid Program, the cost of shipping often exceeds the value of the actual grant. MusiCounts is proud to fully cover shipping costs for schools in isolated, remote communities, where the cost of shipping in musical gear is a major obstacle youth face in accessing music education. In the past two years alone, MusiCounts has invested over $30,000 to ensure that musical instruments reach their destination in remote communities.

Nasivvik High School is located in a remote Inuit community in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. The school will be replacing the handful of unusable instruments they had with brass and wind instruments, MIDI keyboards, production equipment, and instruments for small jazz, rock, pop, and rap music ensemble work. The school hopes the music programming will promote mental health and wellbeing and provide students with an outlet for emotional and spiritual exploration in response to the daily hardships (suicidal ideation, poverty, complex trauma, and more) students face. 105km outside of Yellowknife in Edzo, NT, Chief Jimmy Bruneau serves a population of 400 students. The school will be using their MusiCounts Band Aid Program grant funds to develop both a traditional Tlicho drumming program and a recording program to introduce students to soundscaping, oral storytelling, and music production.

MusiCounts is so proud to have contributed to the success and sustenance of music programming in Northern Canada, but there is still so much to do. After 25 years of making investments through the MusiCounts Band Aid Program, we’re still only able to support 1 in every 5 schools that ask for our help. It will take a chorus of music education champions to help close this gap. Click here to learn about MusiCounts’ 25th Anniversary and help us raise funds for the MusiCounts Band Aid Program.

• Chief T'Selehye School, Fort Good Hope, NT
• Chief Jimmy Bruneau Regional High School, Edzo, NT
• Sam Pudlat School, Kinngait, NU
• Nasivvik High School, Pond Inlet, NU
• Quluaq School, Clyde River. NU
• Inuksiut School, Qiqiktarjuaq, NU