Halifax Regional Arts Music is a vibrant, growing music education program staffed and supported by the Halifax Regional Centre for Education. 2500 students study strings, band, choir, jazz and orchestra. The programs are offered at no charge to students.The Halifax All-City Music Program exists to support and enhance the music programs of the schools in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education.

From   the   beginning

Where   we   are   now

The Halifax All-City Music program began in 1967, with the appointment of Chalmers Doane as Supervisor of Music. The intent of the new music program was to develop a musically literate community based on the premise that:

• Music is for everyone
• Music would be taught by Specialist “Artist” teachers
• General and Instrumental Music would be treated as any other school subject, class taught through grade 12, with Standards of Excellence.

Full general and instrumental programs were initially offered in only a few schools, which soon created city-wide demand. The Board responded and soon there were:

• Kodaly-based general music classes in grades primary to six
• Choir and classroom instruments (recorder/ukulele) grades three to six
• Band instruments grade 5 and up
• Strings starting in grade three, and initially in pre-school

In 2018, the Halifax All-City, Dartmouth All-City and Halifax regional Fine Arts programs amalgamated into Halifax Regional Arts, representing excellence in arts teaching throughout HRM.

The Halifax program is now in its 52nd year. The format for the program remains intact to this day. Music continues to be taught by specialist teachers at all levels and the ability-grouped program continues. In 1996, Halifax was amalgamated with the surrounding towns and rural areas as part of Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).  Halifax Regional Arts now reaches into many areas provides access to many students that would never have benefited from the program before. Students from Sheet Harbour to St. Margaret’s Bay have a place in Halifax Regional Arts.
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The Halifax Music Centre resides in the bottom floor of Oxford school, and continues to serve as a centre of both student learning and teacher professional development.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have lots of dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solution without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” 
–Steve Jobs