Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS)
A Course of Action for studio music teachers who believe every child can change the world.
Expand studio diversity, access and inclusion while nurturing students as changemakers.
Join your peers in Growing Equitable Music Studios with five tangible ACTION steps:
GEMS participants will engage with this Course of Action in two ways:
Each lesson will be driven by a CAR: Concept, Action, and Results. On Mondays, GEMS participants will be presented with an overarching concept and be invited to take specific actions. Case studies and templates from Detroit Youth Volume will be provided as inspirational tools. Friday classes will consist of individual check ins, personalized coaching and peer mentorship around each studio’s plans and progress.
During the last Friday of the course, GEMS participants will take turns presenting their work to each other and our broader community using the virtual platform of the Youth Volume Think Tank, designed to “recenter social justice from the margins to the heart of music education” and to generate “practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP”.
Course Coach Clara Hardie is the Founding director & lead violin teacher of Detroit Youth Volume (DYV), an El Sistema-inspired Suzuki violin studio that began at a soup kitchen in 2010. DYV is the original lab school of the five GEMS concepts. Clara created the GEMS Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank as ways to share DYV lessons-learned and unite music teachers with common purpose.
- Clarify Studio Culture that embodies your dream for social change. Envision an equitable studio environment for yourself, your students, their parents & studio collaborators to practice living in the world we want now.
- Grow Diversity by partnering with community youth organizations to curate a mixed-income, multicultural classroom.
- Expand Access to private lessons. Begin by creating a sustainable grassroots fundraising plan that will annually refresh your financial aid fund for a minimum of one or two students' full tuition.
- Elevate Inclusion by working interdependently with students, parents and local artists. Draw inspiration from the social justice organizing principles of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown.
- Employ Equity Pedagogy that intentionally nurtures students’ essential skills for changemaking such as resilience, innovation, collaboration, & higher order thinking.
GEMS participants will engage with this Course of Action in two ways:
- During 6-weeks of online coaching sessions Monday and Friday afternoons 1:30-3:30p EST, except holidays.
- Outside of virtual class & following course completion as our studios continuously evolve. For example, we aspire to collectively expand access to private lessons for 100 youth by the end of 2021.
Each lesson will be driven by a CAR: Concept, Action, and Results. On Mondays, GEMS participants will be presented with an overarching concept and be invited to take specific actions. Case studies and templates from Detroit Youth Volume will be provided as inspirational tools. Friday classes will consist of individual check ins, personalized coaching and peer mentorship around each studio’s plans and progress.
During the last Friday of the course, GEMS participants will take turns presenting their work to each other and our broader community using the virtual platform of the Youth Volume Think Tank, designed to “recenter social justice from the margins to the heart of music education” and to generate “practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP”.
Course Coach Clara Hardie is the Founding director & lead violin teacher of Detroit Youth Volume (DYV), an El Sistema-inspired Suzuki violin studio that began at a soup kitchen in 2010. DYV is the original lab school of the five GEMS concepts. Clara created the GEMS Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank as ways to share DYV lessons-learned and unite music teachers with common purpose.
Want to grow equity in your own studio and/or support the work? Sign up to receive email updates and/or Donate.
On social media, follow @clara.hardie313 on Facebook and @clarityclark on Instagram.
Follow Detroit Youth Volume on Facebook / Instagram to check out how GEMS Course of Action concepts show up in real life!
On social media, follow @clara.hardie313 on Facebook and @clarityclark on Instagram.
Follow Detroit Youth Volume on Facebook / Instagram to check out how GEMS Course of Action concepts show up in real life!
Enrollment and Cost
Enrollment is done during phone consultations with course coach Clara Hardie to ensure applicants are a good fit and to assess any need for financial aid. Thirty-minute consultations weekdays between 1:30-3:30p EST can be booked by emailing clara@detroityouthvolume.org.
$1,088 is the full cost of one six-week GEMS Course of Action for one participant. Requests for payment plans and financial aid are welcome; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The GEMS Course of Action will generally be offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring every year. And every year, three unstoppable cohorts of five justice-loving music teachers will emerge!
Suzuki Association of the Americas members who have completed Every Child Can and Unit 1 will receive credit for GEMS as an SAA Enrichment Course!
Enrollment is done during phone consultations with course coach Clara Hardie to ensure applicants are a good fit and to assess any need for financial aid. Thirty-minute consultations weekdays between 1:30-3:30p EST can be booked by emailing clara@detroityouthvolume.org.
$1,088 is the full cost of one six-week GEMS Course of Action for one participant. Requests for payment plans and financial aid are welcome; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The GEMS Course of Action will generally be offered in Fall, Winter, and Spring every year. And every year, three unstoppable cohorts of five justice-loving music teachers will emerge!
Suzuki Association of the Americas members who have completed Every Child Can and Unit 1 will receive credit for GEMS as an SAA Enrichment Course!
GEMS Course of Action Schedule Example:
Upcoming Offerings
Interested in a Spring or Fall 2023 GEMS Course of Action? Let Clara know!
Clara is also looking for feedback about doing a Course of Action for classroom teachers who are looking for different timing. Please email clara@detroityouthvolume.org if you've been wanting to take GEMS but haven't been able to. What times work better? 8:30-10:30a? 4-6p? Or doing a morning summer session?
Clara is also looking for feedback about doing a Course of Action for classroom teachers who are looking for different timing. Please email clara@detroityouthvolume.org if you've been wanting to take GEMS but haven't been able to. What times work better? 8:30-10:30a? 4-6p? Or doing a morning summer session?
One-to-One Coaching
For teachers wanting
Please set up a short chat with Clara to talk more about what's been holding you back!
For teachers wanting
- specific support with one of the five GEMS tangible action steps above.
- training that fits their schedule and capacity.
Please set up a short chat with Clara to talk more about what's been holding you back!
Youth Volume THINK TANK
Recentering social justice, from the margins to the heart of music education. Originally known as the Suzuki Social Justice Think Tank, the Youth Volume Think Tank was established with our first two Zoom events in August 2020. We are collaboratively generating practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP.
Here is a Dropbox link with playback videos, transcript and summaries of the very first Think Tank gathering in 2020.
Here is the Youth Volume YouTube Channel with playback videos beginning in 2021.
Upcoming Tank Tank sessions feature graduates of the virtual Growing Equitable Music Studios Course of Action who will share the results of their course work and answer questions from our virtual audience:
Please note, these short Think Thank gatherings are NOT comparable to an anti-racist or Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training. A training such as “Undoing Racism”, provided by the People Institute for Survival & Beyond, last an intensive 2-days from 9am-5pm. Here’s a 1-minute video about the relevance of engaging in an Undoing Racism workshop, for example.
Here is a Dropbox link with playback videos, transcript and summaries of the very first Think Tank gathering in 2020.
Here is the Youth Volume YouTube Channel with playback videos beginning in 2021.
Upcoming Tank Tank sessions feature graduates of the virtual Growing Equitable Music Studios Course of Action who will share the results of their course work and answer questions from our virtual audience:
- February 17, 2023 1:30-3:30p
Please note, these short Think Thank gatherings are NOT comparable to an anti-racist or Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training. A training such as “Undoing Racism”, provided by the People Institute for Survival & Beyond, last an intensive 2-days from 9am-5pm. Here’s a 1-minute video about the relevance of engaging in an Undoing Racism workshop, for example.
MEET THE THINK TANK FOUNDERS! Clara Hardie & Bruce Walker.
Clara Hardie is the Founding director & lead violin teacher of Detroit Youth Volume (DYV), an El Sistema-inspired Suzuki violin studio that began at a soup kitchen in 2010. DYV is the original lab school of the "Growing Equitable Music Studios" (GEMS) Five Stars ideas.
For almost a decade, Clara has been:
Clara loves people and loves to teach! Detroit Youth Volume is her dream music studio. The GEMS Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank are ways to share DYV 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 is raising her twins on an urban prairie in downtown Detroit with her vinyl-obsessed husband. They met while booking shows at the Trumbullplex, North America’s oldest anarchist housing collective and arts space. Clara 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.
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 four 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 is her dream music studio. The GEMS Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank are ways to share DYV 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 is raising her twins on an urban prairie in downtown Detroit with her vinyl-obsessed husband. They met while booking shows at the Trumbullplex, North America’s oldest anarchist housing collective and arts space. Clara 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.
Bruce Walker cochairs the Advisory Committee on Race to the Board of the Suzuki Association of the Americas. He works as an Associate Professor of Music at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, WA, Music Director for the Yakima Youth Symphony in Yakima, WA, and is President of the Washington state chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Duties at CBC include teaching second-year music theory and aural skills, music appreciation, and conducting the Columbia Basin College Orchestra. During the summer months, Mr. Walker works for many workshops, festivals, and institutes throughout the Northwest including the Walla Walla Suzuki Institute, Montana Suzuki Institute, Pipestone Summer Music Camp, Boise’s All-Thing-Cello Camp, and the Music, Meadows, and Mountains Retreat. Previously, he has worked as a faculty member with the Youth Excellence on Stage Academy in collaboration with American Voices, a US non-government, non-profit, cultural exchange organization. Through this organization, he has conducted, traveled, and taught cello in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
As a conductor, Mr. Walker has participated in some of the finest conducting workshops and music festivals across the United States such as the Marrowstone Music Festival, Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, various workshops sponsored by the Conductor’s Guild, Astoria Music Festival, Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, and the University of Oregon Orchestral Conducting Institute. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Central Washington University Symphony, Oregon East Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Portland Columbia Symphony, and the Musicians of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. Memorable for his unique style of positive student engagement, analogies, and his knowledge of the orchestral repertoire, Mr. Walker is also in high demand as an adjudicator and guest conductor for many All-State and Honors Orchestras throughout the United States, most recently conducting the 2020 Arkansas All-State Chamber Orchestra.
As a cellist, Mr. Walker remains very active as a traditional and Suzuki cello teacher, solo performer, and orchestral cellist. He has appeared as soloist with the Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra, the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra, and most recently with the Oregon East Symphony performing Luigi Boccherini (arr. Grutzmacher) - Cello Concerto No. 9 in B flat. He has also held principal cello positions with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Orchestra, Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra, Central Washington University Symphony, Wenatchee Valley Symphony, and the Pierre Monteux School Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Walker won numerous competitions with Trio Giocoso and the DeKalb and Byron String Quartets. Currently, he is an on-call cellist to the Oregon East Symphony (Pendelton, Oregon), Walla Walla Symphony (Walla Walla, Washington), Mid-Columbia Symphony (Richland, Washington) and Yakima Symphony (Yakima, Washington).
Mr. Walker earned Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Cello Performance from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a Master of Music degree from Central Washington University focusing on Orchestral Conducting and Cello Performance. In the fall of 2019, he began his Doctorate of Music Arts degree in Music Education through Boston University. His primary teachers have been Kangho Lee and John Michel (cello), Dr. Jeffery Meyer, Michael Jinbo, Dr. Nikolas Caoile, Kenneth Woods, and Lawrence Golan (conducting), and Dr. Beth Cantrell, Priscilla Jones, Dr. Andrea Yun, and the late H. Glenda Piek (Suzuki cello).
When not in the classroom, on the podium working with ensembles, or teaching cello lessons, he enjoys hiking and traveling around the Pacific Northwest, enjoying time outside around a BBQ pit and smoker sampling new culinary creations, or shopping for and admiring argyle socks.
As a conductor, Mr. Walker has participated in some of the finest conducting workshops and music festivals across the United States such as the Marrowstone Music Festival, Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, various workshops sponsored by the Conductor’s Guild, Astoria Music Festival, Rose City International Conductor’s Workshop, and the University of Oregon Orchestral Conducting Institute. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Central Washington University Symphony, Oregon East Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Portland Columbia Symphony, and the Musicians of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. Memorable for his unique style of positive student engagement, analogies, and his knowledge of the orchestral repertoire, Mr. Walker is also in high demand as an adjudicator and guest conductor for many All-State and Honors Orchestras throughout the United States, most recently conducting the 2020 Arkansas All-State Chamber Orchestra.
As a cellist, Mr. Walker remains very active as a traditional and Suzuki cello teacher, solo performer, and orchestral cellist. He has appeared as soloist with the Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra, the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra, and most recently with the Oregon East Symphony performing Luigi Boccherini (arr. Grutzmacher) - Cello Concerto No. 9 in B flat. He has also held principal cello positions with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Orchestra, Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra, Central Washington University Symphony, Wenatchee Valley Symphony, and the Pierre Monteux School Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Walker won numerous competitions with Trio Giocoso and the DeKalb and Byron String Quartets. Currently, he is an on-call cellist to the Oregon East Symphony (Pendelton, Oregon), Walla Walla Symphony (Walla Walla, Washington), Mid-Columbia Symphony (Richland, Washington) and Yakima Symphony (Yakima, Washington).
Mr. Walker earned Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Cello Performance from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a Master of Music degree from Central Washington University focusing on Orchestral Conducting and Cello Performance. In the fall of 2019, he began his Doctorate of Music Arts degree in Music Education through Boston University. His primary teachers have been Kangho Lee and John Michel (cello), Dr. Jeffery Meyer, Michael Jinbo, Dr. Nikolas Caoile, Kenneth Woods, and Lawrence Golan (conducting), and Dr. Beth Cantrell, Priscilla Jones, Dr. Andrea Yun, and the late H. Glenda Piek (Suzuki cello).
When not in the classroom, on the podium working with ensembles, or teaching cello lessons, he enjoys hiking and traveling around the Pacific Northwest, enjoying time outside around a BBQ pit and smoker sampling new culinary creations, or shopping for and admiring argyle socks.