Dundas Valley music teacher up for national award

Emily Dominey will travel to the JUNOs at the end of the month where the winner of MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award will be announced.

A music teacher in Dundas will be heading to the JUNOs at the end of the month after being nominated for a national teaching award.

Emily Dominey, who teaches at Dundas Valley Secondary School, is up for the MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award. There are five nominees and the winner will be announced at the 2025 JUNO Awards in Vancouver on March 30.

The award comes with a $10,000 prize, a grant for the winner’s school and a JUNO award statuette. Teachers from Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Alberta and Newfoundland are also nominated.  

Dominey was touched by the nomination, which was put forward by one of her students and a colleague.

“I was honestly just kind of speechless that a student would think enough of me to put forth an application, especially being newer in the school and just starting to build a reputation.”

Dominey has been teaching for 14 years, but up until her hiring at DVSS three years ago, she had been a contract teacher.  

“Dundas Valley has always had a strong band program. The pandemic kind of squashed everything, so now is a rebuilding time.”

Adding to the lockdown on the playing of wind instruments, two longtime music teachers at the school retired during the pandemic.

Since Dominey’s arrival, the number of students in both the junior and senior bands has doubled and she has reinstituted field trips and participation in music competitions.

“So the last three years, we've participated in the Ontario band festival and then the Golden Horseshoe Music Festival, as well as music fest nationals. So every year so far that I've been at Dundas, we've been invited to nationals, which is pretty cool.”

This year, the senior band will be travelling to Halifax, with extensive fundraising ensuring every student can go on the trip.

The school’s music council meets every week to organize fundraisers, plan concerts and trips, and choose music for the bands to play.

“It’s a whole-group discussion. Students can always send me their suggestions of things they might want to try. And we send out polls to get their feedback and insight about what they’d like to play as well.”

Dominey takes her bands to perform at elementary schools in DVSS’s catchment and also hosts a band camp day to encourage kids to take music.

DVSS has about 800 students and Dominey runs a music program of seven full classes, plus five more in a special education stream, which are taught by a part-time teacher. Music is entirely elective and students require just one arts credit to earn their diploma.

A unique challenge in a music program is the expense of buying and repairing instruments. She says many instruments in the school’s inventory are 75 years old. There is a stockpile of about 50 brass and woodwind instruments that have become too expensive to repair.  

Underfunded music programs are not new, says Dominey, but the situation is getting worse.

Dominey hopes her nomination shines a light on the importance of music education, which is the purpose of MusiCounts, which was founded by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

“Music was where I found myself, as a very shy, very insecure kid and kind of awkward. Music classes were where I could breathe and just be myself and relax.”

Dominey was influenced by Robin Meyer, head of music at Saltfleet District High School, who arrived at the Stoney Creek school when Dominey was playing trumpet in the program in Grade 12. She says the music program changed immediately.

“(She) brought life and energy into that place. I was actually sad to leave high school … So it just shows you how much a person can really put into a program. So her influence is really what made me even decide to become a music teacher.”

Dominey came in to volunteer teaching alongside Meyer after finishing her music degree in piano at McMaster University. From there, she applied to teachers’ college at the University of Toronto. She’s also completed a master’s degree at Western University.

Along with the MusiCounts recognition, Dundas Valley is also this year’s associate school for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, which brings professional musicians in for performances and workshops.