Our Story
Founded in 2008 and incorporated as a charity in 2016, Springboard to Music is a community music program for children and youth, aged 5-17, living in and around the Kingston-Galloway and Scarborough Village Area of Toronto.
Classes are taught by qualified, professional musicians who each have 10+ years of performance experience.
STM is currently offering private lessons in piano and guitar as well as group classes for voice, keyboard, hand drumming and Orff-based Music & Movement on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4 – 8pm.
Our Mission
Springboard to Music believes that there is a genuine need for music in the lives of children.
An enriched learning experience means students develop healthy interests outside the home.
Engaging music learning taught locally by respected musicians from our community can pique an interest that will last a lifetime.
The program is affordable and offers a great way to spark a child’s interest in music.
Our Team
Artistic Director
Derek Gray
Administrator
Vacant
Peter Albis (Guitar)
Evan Buckland (Guitar)
Phyllis Coulter (Piano)
Derek Gray (Percussion)
Joseph Hsieh (Keyboard)
Cathy Lambert (Piano)
Gordon Brown (Piano & Voice)
Ben Stein (Piano)
Dianne Ball (Voice)
Board of Directors
Phyllis Coulter
Bruce Galbraith
Bob McKitrick
David Ellis
Rosemary Galloway (Ex-Offcio)
Members
Jean Patton
Joseph Jiang
The benefits of studying music
Over the years, there has been countless quantifiable research that shows the benefit of music education among children.
We are please to bring you some of those findings below.
E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga conducted an interesting experiment published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science. Over the course of nine months, three separate groups of twelve six-year-olds were given:
- piano and voice lessons
- drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect)
- and no lessons to a third group.
Before the experiment was begun, the children’s IQs were tested before and after.
The results? The children who were given music lessons tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups.
Sourced from: The Benefits of Music Education for Children, courtesy of Zing Instruments (UK)
Music study enhances learning in all subjects; creates a lifelong interest; teaches focus, intellectual flexibility and teamwork; provides an alternative to TV watching and video games; is fun!
Research has found that learning music facilitates learning other subjects and enhances skills that children inevitably use in other areas. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” says Mary Luehrisen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation, a not-for-profit association that promotes the benefits of making music.
Making music involves more than the voice or fingers playing an instrument; a child learning about music has to tap into multiple skill sets, often simultaneously. For instance, people use their ears and eyes, as well as large and small muscles, says Kenneth Guilmartin, cofounder of Music Together, an early childhood music development program for infants through kindergarteners that involves parents or caregivers in the classes.
“Music learning supports all learning. Not that Mozart makes you smarter, but it’s a very integrating, stimulating pastime or activity,” Guilmartin says.