Stephen Richardson is a pretty busy guy. He's a teacher at 脡cole St. Joseph School; the guitarist for his band, Agony of the Leaves; and also the 2024 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year winner.
Whereas some people might say they play guitar until their fingers bleed, Richardson alluded to a different side-effect.
"I used to teach full-time, and then I'd teach at Fiddles and Stix, the music store in town, until about 10:30 at night and on the weekend. "My bottom ribs glued together from sitting over the instrument that much," he chuckled.
The hard work has paid off. For years, Richardson has been nominated for the Juno special award known as MusiCounts Teacher of the Year. In 2024, he won. On Oct. 18, his school celebrated his achievements.
"Some of my family and university friends were able to come to the award show," Richardson said of the event held in Halifax. "So, I felt a lot of pressure because there's people in the audience, I didn't want to let them down. But it was pretty surreal, and [I'm] pretty grateful."
To be eligible for this type of award, a person would need to apply to MusiCounts for one of the organization's grants, Richardson explained.
"When you win the award, you get $10,000," he said, noting he received another grant this past summer for his songwriting class, which gave him another $5,000.
At least some of that money is going straight back to his classes. Richardson said he has portable recording stations coming, as well as a few other bells and whistles.
"So for a class of 30, I could have little bands of five," he said about the recording stations. "Before, we were just recording on our phones."
Richardson ordered a couple of microphones and LAVA guitars for his classes.
"I basically teach the whole school, except mostly one hallway," he said, noting that 脡cole St Joseph School has close to 600 students. "My youngest class this year is Grade 1."
His philosophy for teaching music: explore it.
"The more you study an instrument, you can learn more about yourself," he said, noting how youth these days are quick to access short-form content, whereas an instrument will have them exercise their attention span.
"There are a lot of life skills in music that will help them," he added.
Kristy Fletcher, the president of MusiCounts, also highlighted the benefits of learning music, whether it's for cognitive function or mental health.
She also explained that the organization's funding isn't a transfer of dollars, but instead goes towards purchasing instruments. Whether Richardson could score another $10,000 by winning the same award twice doesn't seem likely SA国际影视传媒� at least for now.
"Currently we don't have capacity for teachers to apply again. We might at some point put some parameters around that, so after a certain number of years. But at this point, no," Fletcher said of the existing rules.
What makes Richardson stand out, she said, is his storytelling.
"He takes his experiences, not only as a music educator but as a touring musician, and he's able to take those experiences and relay them back to the students in a way that's interesting to them and in a way that they can get excited about being a part of the music industry."
