Ashanti Norwood

TEACHING & PLAYING EXPERIENCE

Hello! I am Ashanti Norwood. My pronouns are she/her or they/them.

I love to collaborate with other artists and mentor younger musicians to express their feelings through music. I completed a teacher training called Growing Equitable Music Studios in February 2022 and will soon be registered as an officially-trained Book 1 Suzuki Teacher.

I am a recent graduate of Detroit School of Arts, where I sat principal violist in Maritza Garibay’s high school orchestra. I played violin for 12 years as a student of 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 myself guitar when I was fifteen. You can hear about my experience as a student of Detroit Youth Volume near the end of this video created by the University of Michigan.

Prior to taking on my own private lesson students in Fall 2022, I acted as Teachers Assistant under Clara Hardie in Detroit Youth Volume group classes for three years. I was also a Junior Counselor with Girls Rock Detroit at age 17.

Recently, I 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 ME!

When I’m not teaching at our sunny classroom in the vibrant arts district of Detroit, I enjoy photography, frequenting open mic nights, and making my own music as a singer song-writer.

STUDIO VISION & CULTURE

My purpose of teaching is to encourage students to express their emotions and individuality through music.

I hope to grow a studio that serves youth of all income levels, and to create an environment where students can learn to collaborate with people of all backgrounds. I want them to be able to carry this forward into life and to go change the world! I agree with what Dr. Suzuki said, “Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music and learn to play it, they get a beautiful heart.”

I am growing life skills in my students. At Detroit Youth Volume, these life skills are called CHANGEMAKER SKILLS, “necessary for ethical citizenship, collaboration, and creating social change.”

My favorite Changemaker Skills to nurture in my students are:

1—Purposefulness—Clear intentions behind the WHY of tasks in the classroom, especially in relation to how the work connection to one’s life and future

2—Innovation—a culture of looking at what could be possible beyond what already exists.

3—Empathy/Solidarity—a push to understand the thoughts, feelings and motivations of others in the world.

To nurture these skills, I encourage daily practice of improvisation/composition along with the Suzuki repertoire. One of the things I’d like to help my students learn is to compose their own music by inviting them to simply breathe, think about what they’d like to hear and what they’d like to play. Each student’s own individual sound has nothing to do with what’s on paper, it has more to do with what each individual is thinking.

To read about Detroit Youth Volume’s official Teaching Approach & Studio Culture, follow this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yBwQVEPzvL66uvtas-CeefSju6VjyIexG59JBzgJXaE/edit I hope to uphold these philosophies to the best of my abilities.