CLARA HARDIE

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Clara Hardie (she/her or they/them) is the Founding director & lead violin teacher of Detroit Youth Volume (DYV), a social justice Suzuki violin studio that began at a soup kitchen in 2010. DYV is the original lab school of the concepts presented in Clara's virtual Course of Action "Growing Equitable Music Studios" (GEMS), which is an official Enrichment Course of Suzuki Association of the Americas.

For almost a decade, Clara has been:
  • sustainably fundraising to serve half her students with full scholarships. DYV scholarships remove barriers to a quality music education by providing tuition adjustment, a quality instrument, music accessories, transportation support, performance outfits, snacks, and tickets to local performances.​​
  • nurturing positive cultural identity in her students as Detroiters and youth of color (applicable to over half of DYV students since its beginnings).
  • celebrating local genres simultaneous to classical repertoire by curating collaborative composition and performances between her students and local musicians; DYV has released five albums.
  • ​using pedagogy to intentionally nurture students’ skills as changemakers and as musicians. At the end of each calendar year, success is measured using metrics and goals are set. Conferences involve the entire Suzuki Triangle: parent, student, teacher.

Clara loves people and loves to teach! Detroit Youth Volume & Marquette Youth Volume are her dream music studios -- one in each of Michigan's pleasant peninsulas. The GEMS Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank are ways to share YV lessons-learned and unite music teachers with common purpose.

​Clara became a Suzuki kid at age 5 in Marquette, Michigan, where she was raised by humanitarian medical professionals. In college Clara studied Social Science Theory at the University of Michigan. After moving to Detroit, she was coached by Ammerah Saidi at Allied Media Projects to personalize the Freire-inspired Rida Framework. Clara learned to teach Suzuki Violin Books 1-6 from Mark Mutter. She’s also received training as an early childhood Music Together specialist.

Clara, her twins, and her vinyl-obsessed husband, relocated to her hometown of Marquette, MI in July 2022. Clara met her husband in 2007, while booking shows at the Trumbullplex, North America’s oldest anarchist housing collective and arts space. She lived there four years prior to founding Detroit Youth Volume, while working at Capuchin Soup Kitchen’s Rosa Parks Youth Program. 

Clara has presented her ideas at the Allied Media Conference, El Sistema USA National Symposium, Suzuki Leadership Retreat, Pedagogy & Theater of the Oppressed Conference, and Michigan American String Teachers Association Studio Teachers Forum.

ASHANTI NORWOOD

 Ashanti Norwood (she/her or they/them) is a recent graduate of Detroit School of Arts, where she sat principal violist in Maritza Garibay's high school orchestra.

She loves to collaborate with other artists and mentor younger musicians to express their feelings through music. Ashanti completed a teacher training called Growing Equitable Music Studios in February 2022 AND will soon be an officially certified Suzuki Teacher! She was a paid Teachers Assistant under Clara Hardie in Detroit Youth Volume group classes for three years prior to taking on her own private lesson students in Fall 2022. Ashanti was also a Junior Counselor with Girls Rock Detroit at age 17. Ashanti co-facilitated a song-writing workshop series for DYV students in Spring 2022, alongside Detroit musician, Joe Reilly. The workshops series resulted in the release of two original songs, recorded and produced by Ashanti.

Aside from being a brilliant viola player, Ashanti also played violin for 12 years with Detroit Youth Volume, enjoying private lessons in the classical Suzuki method, group classes with local artists specializing in Detroit-centric genres like jazz, and teaching herself guitar. You can hear about her experience with Detroit Youth Volume near the end of this video created by the University of Michigan.
 
Ashanti frequents open mic nights when she can and puts out her own music as a singer song-writer constantly on her Instagram account. Want to check out her music?