"Personally Speaking": Music Education Champions Speak Out

CMEC is happy to announce we will be hosting the plenary session at the upcoming Power of Music Symosium - part of the Maestro Abreu/Glenn Gould Foundation celebrations.

When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Time: 3:50
Location: Mazzoleni Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto

Our panel includes:
Linda Ronstadt
The Honourable Tommy Banks
Dr. Heather Ross
moderated by Eric Friesen, former CBC host

For more information on how to participate, please visit the event website: www.thepromiseofmusic.ca

Linda Ronstadt
In addition to Linda’s longstanding musical achievements described below, Linda is a vocal advocate for arts funding and music education. She recently joined Josh Groban and Wynton Marsalis in speaking before a U.S. Congressional Committee regarding funding for the arts. We are very honoured to have her join us for this occasion.

Bio
No other vocalist has had a more diversified career than Linda Ronstadt. She began her career in the mid-1960s with the folk-rock group the Stone Poneys. After the break-up of the Stone Poneys, Linda entered the country music field. In 1969, with the release of Hand Sown... Home Grown, Linda became the first female singer to release an alt-country album.

Linda achieved her greatest commercial success in the mid-1970s when she became the first female rock superstar and the top-selling female vocalist for that decade. During this period, she became widely known as The Queen of Rock and The Queen of Country Rock. Achieving superstardom during the '70s, Linda went on to sell an even greater number of albums in the '80s than she did in the '70s.

Her long string of platinum albums continued throughout the '80s with several varied projects. These included three albums of standards with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, an album of mariachi standards, and a trio project with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. She ended the decade with a return to popular music featuring her duets with Aaron Neville. Linda's success extended into the '90s as well, starting off with a Grammy win for Don't Know Much and ending the decade with a Grammy nomination for Western Wall and a win with Trio II. Other Grammy-winning projects during the 1990s included another album of Mexican canciones, an album of Latin music, and a best-selling album of rock classics redone as lullabies. During this same time, she produced some of the best pop/rock music of her career with Winter Light, Feels Like Home, and her last rock album We Ran. Linda began the new millennium with her first Christmas album, A Merry Little Christmas. This was followed by an album of classic jazz standards, Hummin' to Myself. Linda's current album is Adieu False Heart, an album of duets with Cajun artist Ann Savoy.

The Honourable Tommy Banks
Following a fifty-year international career as a musician, Tommy Banks was summoned to the Senate of Canada to represent the senatorial division of Edmonton Alberta on April 7, 2000. He has served on a variety of Senate committees including National Finance and Energy and the Environment and Natural Resources. During the administration of the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney, Tommy Banks was appointed for two consecutive terms to the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and to a further term as policy adviser to the Board. His musical accomplishments are renowned. He has always been interested in jazz, and his performances both as solo pianist and with groups have been heard frequently on Canadian radio and television, and his recordings have gained worldwide recognition. He was Conductor and/or Musical Director of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, The 1983 World University Games, EXPO '86, and the Calgary XV Winter Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988. Senator Banks is a long-time advocate for music education and became a Champion for Music Education in 2007.

Dr. Heather Ross
Heather Ross, MD, MHSc, FRCP (C), is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital. She is associate editor for the American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. Currently, she is an executive member of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and sits on the Board of the Academy of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. She is the Florence and Reuben Fenwick Family Professor in Advanced Heart Failure and Deputy Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program. Dr. Ross is an avid musician and performs with the band, the Marginal Donors, all of whose members are doctors. She is also an expert mountain climber and recently climbed Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica as part of Test Your Limits – an extreme adventure dedicated to raising awareness and funds for cardiovascular disease and to encourage people to sign their organ donor cards. She is planning a trek to the North Pole in 2010. Dr. Ross became a Champion for Music Education in 2007.

Eric Friesen, Moderator
Eric Friesen is a veteran broadcaster, writer and speaker on music and culture. Under the umbrella of Prairie Boy Speaks Inc., Eric is serving a wide variety of major cultural organizations in Canada. He spent much of his life as a network classical music host and producer for CBC Radio and Minnesota Public Radio (NPR). For CBC he has hosted programs such as Studio Sparks, In Performance, and Onstage at Glenn Gould Studio, as well as the celebrated documentary series The Concerto According to Pinchas, The Concerto According to Manny and Peter and the Symphony. He has also recently completed 6 podcast documentaries called Eric Friesen Presents for www.artsalive.ca marking the 40th anniversary of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In July he interviewed novelist Ian McEwan on classical music in his novels for Angela Hewitt’s Trasimeno Music Festival in Umbria. Excerpts of this interview appeared on CBC Radio’s The Sunday Edition, as well as NUVO magazine and Queen’s Quarterly.