About Us

Mandate

The Alberta Music Education Foundation (AMEF) is a registered charity providing funding and innovative ideas for music education in your community. Through its status as a registered charity, it accepts donations and seeks funding for programs which it runs, co-sponsors, or supports in the province.

Formed in 1997, AMEF exists because of the belief that the study and performance of music is an integral and necessary part of well-rounded life and vibrant communities. It provides funding, ideas, and resources to Alberta's community music students and teachers.

Benefits of membership:

AMEF is a partner with many other non-profit and charitable music groups in Alberta and we provide a lobbying force at the Provincial level for support of music programs. We organize, in part, an annual music conference which members can attend, as well as other regular programs and granting. In addition, all members receive quarterly newsletters and are eligible to participate in AMEF programs.

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VISION

To provide and support opportunities for music education and appreciation for Albertans

MISSION

To promote the advancement of music education in Alberta through participation and/or sponsorship

Objects of the Society

• to promote, sponsor or participate in the sponsorship, promotion and delivery of musical education activities, workshops, camps, conferences and programs;
• to provide music educators with opportunities and training for self-development, leadership and study in the field of music education;
• to establish or support a library, resource centre or electronic resource for sharing of music education resources, information, publication and materials;
• to sponsor or promote the delivery of lectures and demonstrations in the area of musical education and to give, arrange, sponsor or promote musical entertainments;
• to publish or support publications of articles, theses or papers relevant to music education;
• to provide a community service by arranging musical performances and public concerts for other organizations or institutions;;
• to promote the development and advancement of music education by the provision of scholarships, prizes, awards or other financial assistance to music educators, students and musicians of need, merit or distinction as well as to other organizations involved in music education;
• generally to promote, encourage, foster and develop among its members, and members of the public, a recognition of the importance of music education;
• to cooperate with and to make donations, or contributions to other persons, organizations and firms involved in activities similar or complementary to the Objects of the Society;
• to solicit, receive, acquire, and hold donations, gifts, devises and bequests for the Objects of the Society; to enjoy all the benefits of ownership thereof; to sell or convert any property into money from time to time; to invest and re-invest any principal in such manner as may from time to time be determined; and to disburse and distribute such money and property in furtherance of the Society;
• to provide all necessary equipment, furniture, premises and resources for carrying out its Objects;
• to do such other things as may be reasonably incidental to the above.

Annual Report

• 2010-2011

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Music Advocacy’s Top Ten for Everyone

• Ninety-five (95) percent of people responding to a 2000 Gallup Poll believe that music is part of a well-rounded education.
  –Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music in Every School’s Curriculum; Giles Communications, 2000
• Practicing musicians demonstrate 25 percent more brain activity than non-musicians when listening to musical sounds.
  –Exposure to Music Is Instrumental to the Brain; University of Muenster
• In a 1998 study, retirees who participated in group keyboard lessons reported decreased anxiety, decreased depression, and decreased loneliness when compared to a control group.
  –Scientific Study Indicates That Making Music Makes the Elderly Healthier; American Music Conference,
  1998
• People who participate in the arts live longer than others, according to a Swedish study.
  –British Medical Journal; 1996
• At-risk children participating in an arts program that includes music show significant increases in self-concept, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale.
  –Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students through the arts; Auburn University, 1992
• Martin Gardiner of Brown University tracked the criminal records of Rhode Island residents from birth through age 30 and he concluded the more a resident was involved in music, the lower the person’s arrest record.
  –Music Linked to Reduced Criminality; MuSICA Research Notes, Winter 2000
• The part of the brain responsible for planning, foresight, and coordination is substantially larger for instrumental musicians than for the general public.
  –Music On the Mind; Newsweek, July 24, 2000
• Students who participate in school band or orchestra have the lowest levels of current and lifelong use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs among any group in our society.
  –H. Con. Res 266, United States Senate, June 13, 2000
• In a French study, the use of melodies was shown to stimulate speech recovery in stroke victims.
  Neurology; December, 1996
• Taking a music elective course is a better indicator that a student will stay in college than high SAT scores or high GPA.
  –Dr. Denise C. Gardner, Effect of Music Courses On Retention; Georgia Tech, 2000
  

The American Music Council, a non-profit music education advocacy association, offers a document on their website titled Essential Advocacy Resources for Music.