AMBASSADORS
Music plays a big part in the lives of thousands of Australians. You don’t have to make a career out of music to enjoy it and reap its many benefits. High profile Australians from all walks of life support making more music in schools, communities, everywhere. Here, they talk about what music means to them.
Russell Robertson, Melbourne Football Club
"Music has always played an important part of my life. I’ve sung and played guitar for many years and it has always provided me with another avenue for fun and friendships outside the high pressure life as a professional footballer. I’m grateful that I was given the opportunity to explore and develop my music, and think that every child deserves that same opportunity, whether they be in a remote, rural or metropolitan area. I’d also say to kids who play music - don’t give up as you grow older! If you’re lucky enough to have discovered music, you should play for life."
e can do even more for our kids by giving each one of them an effective music education at school. We're all the richer for a society which values music as part of every child's education."
"I am thrilled to be involved with this program. As a once shy child, music is something that not only gave me a great sense of satisfaction, but also gave me a greater self confidence. To this day I am forever grateful for the opportunities I had to learn music at school, the skills from which remain with me today and which I will have for the rest of my life. 
"I totally support this program. If it hadn't been for music education for me, I don't know what I would have done with my life. Even if your field of interest doesn't involve music, just to hear others and experience the joy of creation.... it's wonderful!"
“Music has always been a major part of our lives. As kids growing up on the South Coast of NSW, most afternoons were filled with playing cricket in the backyard followed by singing songs around the piano in our living room. Our mother Helen was the major influence in shaping our musical interests. I can remember sitting on the piano stool with Mum and my brothers Brett and Grant playing ‘you are my sunshine’ at a very young age. 
"Music in my life has been the most important tool for expression and communication. It breaks down cultural barriers, builds bridges between different socio economic groups and brings joy to any individual that gets to play a part in making it. 
"Music has always been a very important part of my life and I commend the extension of this magnificent pursuit to all Australian children. Listening to and playing music adds a new dimension to life - it provides us with a great distraction from our worries and the more mundane day to day matters. Whatever form music takes, we should cherish it and indulge in it every day - with some of us lucky enough to make it a career. Music. Count Us In is an important part of this journey. I applaud John Foreman for his contribution and the Federal Government in bringing this project to fruition." 
"Making music together is a joyous way of making a very important point - music education in schools is more than an enrichment experience, it should be an essential experience for every Australian child." 
“When it comes to your own music-making, when it’s really happening, when you’re really in the moment, totally absorbed, it’s a transcendental experience. It’s like the rest of the world has ceased to exist.”
“Apart from the school choir and a couple of piano lessons as a child, I have had no musical training, yet music is my life. My love of Hip Hop has taken me overseas and involved me in a universal community. Music is so powerful whichever way you participate in it, whichever genre, it's an amazing outlet and enriches your life.” 
“What I’m trying to do in connecting two cultures (indigenous and western classical) is show that music is music. Forget all the notes on paper! Music is a universal language for all people to appreciate and experience on a conscious and sub-conscious level.” 
"Music has been such an important part of each of our lives and has been a constant companion in our relationship as father and daughter. Whether it's folk, jazz, classical or country, it doesn't matter. Just do it! Give all kids the opportunity to make music at school - and give them a skill they'll have for life, wherever they go and whatever they choose to do."Give the gift with strings attached and support our Guitars for Schools campaign.
Making Music Being Well - the national celebration of active music making for wellbeing - will be running from 17-23 May 2010. More details to follow soon.
Join Australia’s first national community music network. Skill-up and learn from the experts.
