Help us earn a $10,000 match!

An anonymous family foundation has agreed to match all contributions from our community given through December 31st, 2023 at 11:59pm, up to $10,000!

Let’s make quality music education accessible to low-income families in Detroit & Marquette! YV’s Equitable Tuition Fund is supported by individual donors and small grants. Together, we are nurturing beautiful humanity & beautiful talent in Michigan string-players ages 4-18! 

100% of YV students benefit from our mixed-income, multicultural classroom environment. This is where young musical changemakers get to practice creative collaboration with people of various backgrounds! 
​
THANK YOU for supporting our musical changemakers!

We are so grateful for our community. 
Let's have a party together!

Join Youth Volume for a performance and silent art auction at Barrel & Beam Brewery! The show will feature over twenty beyond-repair violins, cellos and antique cases that have been reconstructed by select Detroit and Marquette-area woodworkers, painters, stencilers, fiber & collage artists. 

Stay tuned at www.youthvolume.org/donate to join us virtually and/or bid on art! 

LET'S PLAY! 

SEEKING NEW STUDENTS & DONORS

Check out a 25-minute Info Session from Founding Director & teacher Clara Hardie on Facebook here: https://fb.watch/mIph8tpAGG/ 

Supporters and prospective donors may also watch the video for details Youth Volume's 2023/2024 school year.

Both private lessons & group classes are both traditional to the Suzuki method. Our lesson year is September through June.

Applications will be accepted until our studio is full! 

In addition to weekly 30-minute private lesson, there are twice a month group classes on Saturday mornings 10-10:45a for those who have played for at least 1 year and 11-11:45a for beginners.

Our studio is located within Still Point North at 6044 US-41 South, near the intersection of M-28 & Hwy 41. 

More info about Youth Volume can be found in the Handbook under the Studio tab, along with the 2023-2024 Calendar.

Hello! In Detroit & Marquette, Youth Volume is

  • youth ages 3-18 learning to play violin and cello in order to grow RICH Changemaker Skills:
    • Resilience
    • Innovation 
    • Collaboration 
    • Higher Order Thinking
  • cultivating a Studio Culture & Teaching Approach using the world-class Suzuki method & social justice practices aka "Equity Pedagogy".
  • ​studying genres with historical significance to our cities during annual Place-based Music Celebration workshop series, performance, and an album release. We do this to develop positive cultural identities in our students as city residents and as Black, Indigenous & Youth of Color (32% of Youth Volume). 
  • making quality arts education accessible to families experiencing systematized oppression with grassroots student recruitment strategies and by maintaining a community-supported fund for financial aid. 32% of YV students receive financial aid.
  • striving towards racial and economic justice, both as a community of people and a non-profit, through our practices inside and outside of the classroom.
  • queer-owned and operated.

We grew!

There are now TWO Youth Volume studios:
  1. The original, Detroit Youth Volume, was founded in 2010. DYV students take lessons virtually with Director Clara Hardie on Zoom. They join a hybrid group class monthly with Marquette students. DYV also works with local musicians in person annually on an album project to celebrate place-based music genres.
  2. Marquette Youth Volume was founded in 2022. MYV private lessons and group classes take place within the community dance/yoga studio called Still Point North. Yooper youth collaborate with their DYV classmates during hybrid group classes, and with local musicians during Spring-time place-based music projects.

SUSTAINERS are fans who give MONTHLY, QUARTERLY or ANNUALLY.​

So far Youth Volume has about 20 Sustainers who give between $5 and $100 each month. Fans can sign up to give quarterly, annually, or monthly.

"Recurring giving" is an innovative method of supporting community arts. It stretches donors' capacities while allowing our small organization to more accurately predict how much $ will roll in each month to subsidize tuition for families who could not access quality music education otherwise. 

Pledge your love to young musical changemakers who need you! 

Growing Equitable Music Studios:
​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. ​
Youth Volume's co-founder & Director, Clara Hardie, presents a six-week Course of Action entitled Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS)! Case studies and templates from Detroit Youth Volume are provided as inspirational tools.

The NEXT Course of Action is coming! 
  • In February/March 2024, a special GEMS cohort will engage in a Course of Action in the time leading up to the 2024 SAA Biennial Conference March 20-23, 2024! All GEMS grads wanting to attend the conferences in Louisville, Kentucky are encouraged to participate alongside Clara during our session: "Methods for Growing Equitable Music Studios" on Saturday 1p. 

Click the "Learn more!" button so receive GEMS email communications. You can also follow Clara's Facebook/Instagram accounts!

Prospective students may schedule a phone call with Clara to receive additional course information and get registered by emailing clara@youthvolume.org. 

Dates & course content details can be found in the Teaching Training & Think Tank tab above.

Youth Volume Think Tank

The Youth Volume Think Tank is generating practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP. 

Upcoming Tank Tank sessions will 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.

Any one is welcome! Click button to join email list or email clara@youthvolume.org to be sent the Zoom link once.

Watch us go!

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"Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.” ~Shinichi Suzuki