Clara Hardie

VIOLIN LESSONS in MARQUETTE & DETROIT

YOUTH VOLUME is one organization with TWO studios in each of the largest cities in the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan! Young musicians ages 4-18 from the Detroit and Marquette studios meet up for a long weekend of creative collaboration most summers in either Detroit or Marquette.

At the Youth Volume studios, we utilize the Suzuki Method to nurture students’ abilities for resilience, innovation, collaboration, and higher-order-thinking skills. Our sliding scale tuition covers group classes, private lessons, high-quality instruments, special workshops with local musicians, a Spring solo recital, community performances, and more! Visit www.detroityouthvolume.org for additional info.

As a community of people and an organization, Youth Volume strives to function as an anti-racist, pro-Black organization. Inside and outside of the classroom, we practice growing equity from what we learn in our daily lives and from trainings such as an Undoing Racism with People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. We are subverting the dominant paradigms of “white supremacist patriarchal capitalism”, to quote bell hooks. Our organization is queer-owned and operated.

I. Detroit Youth Volume

I founded Detroit Youth Volume (DYV) at Capuchin Soup Kitchen in 2010. DYV remains a community-based organization providing music education that is accessible, equitable, and relevant to our city since 2010.

I teach my Detroit students on Zoom while former DYV student Ashanti Norwood provides Private Lessons and Group Classes in person at our sunny classroom in the arts district of Detroit. Ashanti is a talented social justice Suzuki teacher, singer-songwriter, poet, music producer, and photographer who was one of DYV’s very first students when she was eight years old!

Our space is within the Cathedral Church of St Paul at 4800 Woodward, close to the Public Library, Detroit Institute of Art, Science Center & Charles Wright Museum of African American Art; we love being in the Cass Corridor neighborhood where Detroit artists have been creating for many years.

II. Marquette Youth Volume

In July 2022, I moved back to my hometown of Marquette, MI after living in Detroit for sixteen years! I have a small number of Marquette-based students and will accept more in Fall 2023, alongside my five-year-old twins Marea and Orla.

TEACHER TRAINING ONLINE

I. Six-week Course of Action: Growing Equitable Music Studios + Youth Volume Think Tank

In January 2021, I began officially coaching other music teachers who believe every child can change the world. The "Growing Equitable Music Studios" Course of Action and Youth Volume Think Tank are ways to share DYV lessons-learned and unite music teachers with common purpose.

During the Course of Action, each GEMS teacher will personalize five action steps: Clarify Studio Culture, Grow Diversity, Expand Access, Elevate Inclusion, and Employ Equity Pedagogy. At the end of each Course of Action, the Think Tank doubles as a GEMS Graduation Ceremony. It provides an online platform for GEMS teachers to present their progress & plans while “collaboratively generating practical solutions for individual music teachers to nurture their studios with diversity, equity and inclusion ASAP.”

II. One-on-One Coaching

I also provide personal coaching within the five GEMS areas up on request. Email me to book a chat and see if we would be a good fit for each other!

EDUCATION & TEACHING EXPERIENCE

My teaching goal is to nurture beautiful humanity and beautiful talent. I began teaching Suzuki violin in 2010. I have worked with youth of all ages since I was a teenager while teaching, mentoring, tutoring and doing art therapy.

My teacher trainer for Suzuki Books 1-6 was Mark Mutter, Director Suzuki Royal Oak Institute of Music. He helped me start Detroit Youth Volume!

I studied Social Science Theory at the University of Michigan Residential College in Ann Arbor, moving to Detroit in 2006. I’ve been a Suzuki kid since age 5 when I started lessons in Marquette, where I was born. I went to Blue Lake Fine Arts and Stevens Point many summers of my childhood and traveled to Europe with the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra when I was 16. I’ve also played electric violin in indy bands and on a few of my friends’ albums.

I’ve been a facilitator of parent-child Music Together classes for ages 0-5. With the Music Together curriculum & pedagogy, I also taught kindergarten & 1st grade classes at local elementary schools. I substituted at Detroit Waldorf School in Music with grades 3-8 and in the Early Childhood and Parent/Tot classes for a handful of years.

I utilize two years of training with Allied Media Projects for community educators during which I learned to use transformative practices that develop higher order thinking skills and nurture essential human skills. You can read more about that on the DYV website under About / Teaching Approach.

DYV teachers & I attended an adult intensive week at Creative Strings workshop in Ohio with famed jazz violinists Christian Howes and his amazing faculty in Summer 2017. This experience also factors in to the DYV curriculum and pedagogy.

MEDIA

Beatz & Stringz music video: https://youtu.be/25-n50JtXoQ

Jazz Violin "The Detroit Way" video: https://youtu.be/ZwHnWuY8sic

These videos illustrate what happens during local musician collabs.

"Detroit Youth Volume—Interview with Founder Clara Hardie" by Dan Browning. Read it here: https://suzukiassociation.org/news/journal/45.2/ One of my students was featured on the cover of the American Suzuki Journal in Winter 2017!

SAA’s Building Noble Hearts Podcast in 2018 for Season 2, Episode 4: https://suzukiassociation.org/building-noble-hearts/episodes/im-so-happy-season-2-episode-4/ Myself, DYV teacher Ashley Nelson, and DYV co-founder Mark Muteer were interviewed.

[updated January 2023]