I just returned from Vancouver where, among many other things, I saw Sarah McLachan kick off the Lilith Fair Tour with other headliners Sheryl Crow, Sugarland and Erykah Badu.  It was a beautiful outdoor event on Canada Day with amazing performances by all four of these female superstars, culminating in an encore with all singing together and fading into firework festivities across the water on both sides of Ambleside Park. Lilith Fair, an important musical and social statement in addition to a highly entertaining and inspiring festival for all ages, comes to Los Angeles (well – Anaheim) today.  I highly recommend supporting the festival and enjoying a great afternoon of festivities and incredible music.  If you are not in the LA area, check out the schedule for other dates across the country through mid-August.

As much as the festival, the inspiring female performers and the important causes they are supporting, I want to bring your attention to a very special program in the Vancouver area founded by Sarah McLachlan.

Sarah had long dreamed to open a free music school for inner city youth.  Years ago, she started the Sarah McLachlan foundation in 1999, and her dream became a reality in 2002 with the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach-An Arts Umbrella Project.  I had the opportunity to meet with some of her wonderful staff that run the foundation, and hear some of their stories. The program works to bring music to young under-served Canadians and inspires a relationship with music that will have a lasting impact all aspects of their lives. The school has grown to more than 250 students, grades 3-12, and puts emphasis on public performance to reach out to the community.

What Sarah is doing, in addition to already deeply affecting millions of  lives through her own music, is showing the necessity that teaching our children to create and perform music has an impact on their personal and social development.

Growing up as a kid in Detroit during the end of the Motown Era and depending on music for my own sanity, I can truly identify with Sarah’s dream and her words when she describes what music meant to her as a child.

“I don’t know what I would have done without music in my life. Music was my refuge and solace. It was a friend that was always there for me. The one thing I knew I was really good at. It fed me and kept me going. That feeling hasn’t changed. Music is a gift. It connects us to each other and to ourselves. Through it we share our stories and our emotions, and we create a whole new way of communicating.” -Sarah McLachlan

You can learn more about why, to so many young people in Vancouver, “Music is Life” at http://www.sarahmclachlanmusicoutreach.com/

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