Arnaud Soly Makes A Virtual Visit To His High School To Give $30,000 In Musical Instruments

The evenko foundation has donated 28 musical instruments to Ecole Joseph-François Perrault (JFP), located in the St-Michel neighbourhood in Montréal: 12 flutes, 13 clarinets, 2 cellos, and 1 double bass; a donation worth $30,000. In order to respect the public health measures, the secondary 1 class received the good news via videoconference.
Comedian and former Ecole Joseph-François Perrault student (and flute player!) Arnaud Soly, who was accompanied by the actor and friend of the foundation Marc-André Grondin, presented this donation, which is in line with the mission of the evenko foundation to give all young people in Quebec the means to fulfill themselves through music and art.

The students also enjoyed an interview/discussion with Arnaud Soly hosted by Marc-André Grondin. They had the chance to ask Arnaud several questions about his education, his career, and the importance and benefits of arts and music in his life. A warm, funny and inspiring virtual exchange that the participants will never forget.

"In addition to offering instruments, the goal of our foundation is to inspire the students through the presence of artists from their neighbourhood or who play the same instrument as them. With Arnaud, it was a double hit, because he studied at JFP and he played transverse flute, one of the instruments we are donating to the school today." Nathalie Roberge, evenko foundation.

"Music should be available to everyone on the planet. It's something that is so great at developing your creativity, your discipline, your communication, your breathing, your sensibility. There are only positive aspects to playing music." Arnaud Soly.

"The objective of Ecole Joseph-François Perrault is to make students evolve in all kinds of creative ways, without necessarily turning them into professional musicians. We notice that the students who play music at school have the highest academic success rates. And to be able to talk to a character like Arnaud Soly is very motivating for young people. He was at JFP before, and look how successful he now is!" adds M. Levasseur - musical director of Ecole Joseph-François Perreault

"As a teacher, we see all the growth and benefits brought by music for the students over 5 years. What the evenko foundation just did for us, by offering quality instruments to the students at the beginning of their academic career, is motivating them to continue their musical learning until secondary 5," concludes Jean-Michel Lefebvre, music teacher at Ecole Joseph-François Perreault

Every year Ecole Joseph-François Perrault welcomes nearly 1,550 students from different cultures, and who mostly live in the St-Michel neighbourhood. More than half of them are in the music department, where the school dropout rate is almost non-existent. This positively impacts the graduation rate at JFP, which is 82%, while at schools from similar socio-economic background in Montreal it is around 64%.

In the past 6 years, the evenko foundation is happy to have donated more than $530,000 in musical instruments to over 25 schools and organizations in Quebec as part of its "In harmony with our schools" program, in partnership with Sirius XM Canada.

Launched in May 2015, the evenko foundation's mission is to give all young people in Quebec the means to fulfill themselves through music and art. The foundation believes that music and art education is fundamental to the social, psychological, emotional, and academic development of young people. www.fondationevenko.ca.