Kilbride Public School receives $18,000 grant in honour of Burlington musician

Andrew Lindsay, a Burlington native and YouTube Music employee, passed away from cancer in May 2023. He is remembered for his lifetime of work in the music industry, his love of animals, and chocolate chip cookies. 

To honour Andrew, YouTube Music is donating $18,000 to the Junos' charitable arm MusiCounts in his name, and funding a music program at Kilbride Public School in Andrew’s hometown. The donation was announced during a ceremony prior to the Juno Awards. 

The funding will make a meaningful difference at the small rural school.

"We need the renovation of our instruments," Daniel Armiss, music teacher at Kilbride Public School said. "We have a full band, except for strings, including woodwinds and brass."

The money will be used to replace instruments that have been well loved by students for years, but are in need of an upgrade. Armiss said a few of the instruments are even older than he is. 

"It's not through the fault of the students, it's just that when you're working on a 40-year-old instrument they're prone to breaking," he said. "They need constant maintenance. I've been on a mission to breathe some life into this program, and because of the budget there was no way I'd be able to do this in a year. Essentially, it was a 10-year plan to replace the worst ones, and this grant will cut that time in half, if not less."

At the end of each music student's Grade 8 year, they must compose an original piece of music on their own. Armiss said that even if they don't go into music as a career, each child will have made something nobody can take from them. 

Andrew lived for music, working in shops and for record companies for the majority of his life. After getting his first instrument as a birthday present, he was on his way to be surrounded by sound. 

“Andrew got his first guitar for his eighth birthday, and from then on music became the focus of his life,” Andrew's wife Shelley said in a statement. “ He started his first basement band during his high school years in Burlington, which kick-started his career on stage and in the studio -  writing songs, singing and playing guitar.”

Shelley mentioned his time with The Saddletramps in the early 2000s, his time at Sunrise Records in Burlington Mall, Sony Music, YouTube, BMG, and PolyGram. 

She added that Andrew would’ve loved to see the future of Kilbride’s music program. 

“If he believed in you, he believed in you all the way,” Shelley said. “He was always ready to give talented newcomers and friends a helping hand, whether it was a musician or someone who just loved music.”

MusiCounts, the Juno Awards’ charity, has donated $17 million to more than 1,500 schools across Canada in 27 years. 

The organization aims to aid Canadian music programs that Nick Godsoe, manager of programs and education at MusiCounts, says remain underfunded. 

“A lot of teachers don’t have the resources, the instruments, the equipment they need to offer music class in a way that’s accessible to all the students at their school,” Godsoe said. “That poses a crisis for the future of music in this country if students aren’t able to make music in the classroom.”

To watch announcement at the Juno Awards ceremony, click here and skip to 1:44:25.