Bradford teachers playing in national Music Monday broadcast – BradfordToday.ca

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For this local duo, being asked to play as one of the featured acts in a national broadcast was like music to their ears.
Bradford resident since 1987 and music teacher/librarian at St Cecilia Catholic School in New Tecumseth, John Miorin, is once again sharing the stage with Andrew Salazar, a Barrie resident who has been teaching music at Holy Trinity Catholic High School in Bradford since September. Together the pair are set to be part of the annual Music Monday broadcast on May 5, created by the Coalition for Music Education to celebrate the power of music and school music programs, with performances from school, community and professional performers, bands and choirs from across the country.
“To be part of it, it’s awesome, because as a music teacher myself it’s something that’s really, really important to me — especially having students part of it and student-created bands is a big deal,” Miorin said.
Salazar agreed, and noted that music programs aren’t always as well supported or represented as they would like.
“We’re just really trying to promote the program and help everybody realize that music is important,” Salazar said.
This year, the pair will be performing a cover of Corey Hart’s 1983 hit Sunglasses at Night in an ’80s hair metal style, with Miorin performing guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, while Salazar stuck to vocals, as the arrival of his two children in 2024 and fatherly duties take priority over performing multiple parts.
“We always like to do a popular Canadian song, but we like to add a twists to it,” Miorin said.
After engaging with the coalition on social media, the pair have been involved with the annual event several times since the COVID-19 pandemic, with performances including Justin Bieber’s Baby as ’50s rock, The Weekend’s Save your Tears as bluegrass and Blinding Lights as ska punk, and last year k-os’s Crabbuckit as big band. The latter saw Salazar playing plenty of different horns and woodwind instruments, including saxophone.
The pair explained the annual event matters because it helps shine a light on the benefits learning music can have for youth.
As a student growing up in Bradford, Miorin said he enjoyed playing sports like baseball and hockey, but found music helped him to become more well rounded as a person, and beyond learning how to play it also taught him time management, discipline and confidence to perform.
At the time, he recalled most elementary schools didn’t have rock-and-roll bands, and said most elementary schools still don’t have music rooms, which is why Miorin was so happy to have the support of the principal at St. Cecilia and the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) to purchase guitars, basses and electric drums.
Those are currently being used by several student bands, some of whom will be part of in-school performance for Music Monday, according to Miorin.
“It’s really important to give these students an opportunity that I didn’t have in elementary school and give them a head start,” he said.
As the library was rarely needed in the morning, Miorin said he was able to help it evolve into a learning commons that doubles as a music room when not being used for its many books.
Salazar said he hadn’t played music seriously until picking up the saxophone in Grade 9, but by the time he graduated, he was so engaged that he went to university for music before attending teacher’s college.
“That shaped me completely — just being able to have that opportunity in Grade 9,” he said.
Holy Trinity’s music room resonates with more than just the die-hard performers though, as Salazar explained that in spare periods or over lunch breaks, plenty of students stop in, not just to practice, but also out of curiosity or even just in search of the right crowd.
“I feel the music room is a great place for everybody,” he said. “It’s a community grounds, and a place for everybody to fit in.”
While Miorin has been playing music since about 1995 and teaching music in school since about 2012, and Salazar has been playing music since about 2004 and teaching in school since about 2013, the pair have been playing in bands together off and on since about 2009, most recently as part the four-member rock band Hey Slugger.
“We’re still doing the rock-‘n’-roll dream even though we’re both full-time teachers,” Miorin said.
Along with many others, their performance is scheduled to be available on The Coalition for Music Education’s YouTube page and website.
The coalition claims to be Canada’s first music education charity, started in 1992, which brought together more than 20 music education organizations to raise awareness of the role that music engagement plays in Canadian culture, and to promote the social and academic benefits of music participation for those young and old.
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