Youth Volume's Founding Director Clara Hardie provides Courses of Action to music teachers & organizations who want to change the world by growing more equitable communities.
In January 2021, Youth Volume's founder Clara Hardie began inviting other music teachers to take on a Course of Action to grow more equitable communities was within our realms of power as music teachers: our own studios! Cohorts of five music teachers worked together with Clara on Zoom over six weeks. They took action and made plans for expanding equity, diversity, access, and inclusion using their teaching practices and through business methods inspired by Youth Volume case studies & templates.
Nothing but goodness came out of this! To this day, music teachers are signing up as GEMS, seeking (r)evolution of the music education field and to live in the worlds we want NOW.
In 2023, Clara realized that the Actions can be applied to ANY business or organization! We all have realms of power that we can use to transform our internal and external worlds by seeking to:
Nothing but goodness came out of this! To this day, music teachers are signing up as GEMS, seeking (r)evolution of the music education field and to live in the worlds we want NOW.
In 2023, Clara realized that the Actions can be applied to ANY business or organization! We all have realms of power that we can use to transform our internal and external worlds by seeking to:
- Clarify Culture
- Grow Diversity
- Expand Access
- Elevate Inclusion
- Employ Equity Ethos
Who knows how much impact our little microcosms will have
while we continue to evolve as models of equitable organizations?!
Sometimes we can actually do the math to find out. For example, within the Suzuki movement of music education, for example, if all 7,000 registered Suzuki teachers world-wide were to fundraise to teach ten percent of their studios (1-2 students) for free, at least ten thousand more youth would have access to high-quality music education. Now that's collective impact!
Let's do this! The sparkling GEMS & GEODes who want to engage in this work have two options:
- Join a cohort of five to engage collaboratively in a Course of Action twice a week over a couple of months, totaling 24 hours:
- Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS)
- Growing Equitable Organizations by Design (GEODe)
- Go for personal coaching with Clara for an individualized number of sessions to delve more deeply into one or two Action steps, whether or not you have already completed a GEMS or GEODe Course of Action.
Course Coach Clara Hardie is the Founding director & lead violin teacher of Youth Volume, a social justice Suzuki violin studio that began at a Detroit soup kitchen in 2010. DYV is the original lab school of the five Action steps for Growing Equitable Music Studios & Growing Equitable Organizations by Design. 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.
1. 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.
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!
$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.
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!
$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.
2. Growing Equitable Organizations by Design (GEODe)
A Course of Action to nurture organizations with diversity, access, and inclusion by personalizing equitable culture and business practices.
- for non-music teachers wanting to make their services (lessons, healing arts sessions, etc.) accessible to a more socioeconomically diverse clientele by expanding access, elevating inclusion, and centering equity.
- specific support with one or more of the five GEMS tangible action steps above, tailored to you or your organization!
- training that fits your schedule and capacity.
Please set up a short chat to talk more about how your GEODe work with Clara might look!
Youth Volume THINK TANK
We are collaboratively generating practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP.
Every Growing Equitable Music Studios graduation ceremony doubles as an open-the-public once per season. The GEMS Think Tank was designed to recenter social justice, from the margins to the heart of music education. Any and all co-conspirators are welcome to come and hear GEMS grads present their work, ask questions, and/or offer ideas!
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.
Join the Youth Volume email list to rec'v announcements about upcoming Tank Tank sessions.
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.
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.
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.
Join the Youth Volume email list to rec'v announcements about upcoming Tank Tank sessions.
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.
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.