Canada Music Week
Celebrating Canadian Music
November 16-22, 2025
Canada Music Week is an annual event where music teachers, students and their families gather together in local communities to celebrate Canadian music. Canada Music Week events are presented in various formats: from recitals, to workshops, to contests - all with the premise of presenting music by Canadians for Canadians.
The aims of Canada Music Week are to bring to the attention of the public, through various means, the importance of Canadian music; to support composers and performers of Canadian music; to introduce contemporary music to young Canadians and stimulate a keener appreciation and understanding of this music; and to encourage music educators to widen their knowledge and experience of Canadian works.
Canada Music Week is dedicated to music in its fullest sense but since 1967 particular focus has been on the Canadian cultural content. Thousands of Canadians experience Canada Music Week festivities each year in their communities. In 1957 Violet Isfeld, who was then president of the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Associations, proposed that a National Week for Music be initiated in 1960 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Federation. The response was enthusiastic and the celebration so successful that the next year (1961) it was decided by CFMTA council to make "Canada Music Week" an annual event.
To get more info on Canada Music Week events in your community, click here to visit the website of the local ORMTA Branch near you.
For more information, please contact us.
Canada Music Week Organizing Kit for Branches
ORMTA Branches, you are encouraged to celebrate Canada Music Week (CMW) by planning an activity and/or event on the 3rd week of November.
Planning a CMW event in your community is a great initiative for your branch to take on. You’ll be presenting a fun event that is centred on engaging, contemporary music while providing a platform to educate your members and their students.
There are some files in the Canada Music Week folder of the Member Documents to help you get organized. In that folder, you'll find:
Ideas of how your branch can celebrate CMW
CMW press release template that you can fill in with particulars for your event and send to local media
List of the types of local media you may wish to contact in your community
Waiver form that you can have parents sign granting your branch permission to take photos and/or videos of students, so they can be published in Notes or posted on www.ormta.org
In late November following your event, please submit a report of how your branch celebrated Canada Music Week. You are also welcome to include photos, videos and newspaper clippings. A report will be prepared outlining how all ORMTA branches celebrated CMW. This report will be included in the spring edition of Notes and on our website. The deadline to submit reports is December 1st.
For more information, please contact us.