To view some recent concerts in the community, please click here to visit the vFEST/VIRTUAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL.

Central Ontario Band Workshop 

Annual invitational two day enrichment for Waterloo, Wellington, Perth County high school wind band students
Attendance, 120-140 players
Workshops and sectionals offered by Laurier faculty and students
Offered 3rd week of September
Guest conductors have included: 
    Dr. Mark Hopkins, 2011
    Dr. Jessica Kun, 2010
    Colin Clarke, 2009   

Sing Fires of Justice

Annual ecumenical public choral event that focuses on a justice project. Partnered with WLU Seminary, Debbie Lou Ludolph, Dean of Chapel, Royal College of Canadian Organists, and community choral leaders.
Sunday, October 14, 2012  7:30 P.M. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Benton Street, Kitchener

High School String Symposium

Annual invitational two day enrichment for Waterloo Region string programs.
Attendance, 50-60 players
Penderecki String Quartet, Professor Paul Pulford, Laurier String Students provide leadership
Offered 3rd week of November

Artist, Composer, Educator –in-residence (Sponsored by KNAER and LcMc)

Dr. Peter Wiegold, Brunel University, London, UK
October 15-20, 2011
Schedule and Videos:  http://engagetocreate.com/peter-wiegold-visit

SAME (Student Association of Music Educators)

Prospective music educators at Laurier volunteer in local schools as teachers’ assistants, a key part of the Centre’s work.
The Student Association of Music Educators will organizes and administers a one-day workshop for students and music teachers in the winter.
Saturday, March 10, 2012, Paul Martin Centre: RONDO : a full day conference sponsored by SAME.  For more information, contact Ella Weber, President, SAME, ella_weber@hotmail.com

Arts and Social and Environmental Justice Symposium

May 15, 2010. Featuring Keynote speakers Rena Uptis, Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto in partnership with Learning Through the Arts. This academic symposium featured notable figures in both Arts and Social Justice as keynotes, and various themes of intersections within the theme.

Veena Sahasrabudde Indian Classical Lecture Demonstration and Public Concert

October 1-2, 2010 (in collaboration with the School of Business and Economics)
The lecture and demonstration by Dr. Hari and Dr. Veena Shasrabudde before a capacity student and faculty audience was enthusiastically received. The public concert in the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall was a memorably significant cultural event in the history of the Faculty of Music.

LcMc and Community Service Learning

MU350, MU450 MusicWorks Course  (0.5 credit/ term)

MusicWorks creates opportunities; a means by which lives are changed. The MusicWorks program brings people together, ignoring divisions and hierarchies that have formed in our society. Not only are people's interest in music and even life-long dreams of music being met, Laurier students' lives are being greatly enriched through the diversity in relationships and experiences that the program provides. 
MusicWorks Mentor, 2008

Course Coordinators:
Anya Alexeyev, room A314, 519-884-0710, ext. 2291

Lee Willingham, A518  ext 3621  [lwillingham@wlu.ca]

This is a Community Service Learning course which gives students an opportunity to directly contribute to the community while developing teaching, organizational and interpersonal skills. Piano and/or guitar lessons are provided to low income pupils at The Working Centre in downtown Kitchener. In addition to studio instruction, recitals/concerts, field trips, and other community service are planned and administered.

Matty Walton, WLU Alumnis, researched the process of artists and community intersetions. He writes:

In her article "The 'Subject' is Singing: Singing as Social Practice," Victoria Joyce Moon comments that "As educators we need to continually ask what we think we are doing when we teach music and lead music making activities: for whose benefit are we doing this?" Throughout my research, I encountered far too many college and university community music projects that clearly were not truly concerned with the communities they claimed to serve. Often they were only interested in training and recruiting future students or making a profit. Even in seemingly altruistic scenarios in which university music education majors were sent into public schools to teach, often the only real beneficiaries were the university students, not the children.