Left to right: Ross Porter, Ellis Marsalis, SOCAN Foundation president Stan Meissner and Murray McLauchlan at The Promise of Music symposium. (Photo: Grant W. Martin Photography)

Jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, a renowned educator and patriarch of the family that includes trumpeter Wynton and his saxophonist brother Branford, was the keynote speaker and headline performer during the SOCAN Foundation’s day-long music-education symposium, The Promise of Music, held May 13, 2011, at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall in Toronto.

Hosted by award-winning singer-songwriter and Foundation board member Murray McLauchlan, the event included an onstage interview with Marsalis by Ross Porter, President and CEO of Toronto radio station JAZZ.FM91, along with panels on “Why Investing in Arts Education Matters to Business,” “Deans of Education Speak Out” and “Music Education Champions Speak from the Heart.” Also included were a look inside the new Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, performances by various talented young musicians and singers, and a presentation of the Royal Conservatory’s inaugural, Foundation-sponsored Thank a Teacher Award to Vancouver-based Bernice Pearce.

An evening concert featured the Ellis Marsalis Quartet, the Toronto All-Star Big Band, award-winning young Conservatory-trained classical pianist Alex Seredenko and the Ontario Youth A Cappella Chorus. Partners for the event were the Foundation, the Conservatory, the Coalition for Music Education and Business for the Arts, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Music Educators’ Association, JAZZ.FM91 and The Globe and Mail.