Do you remember when we used to be able to gift music? Fold wrapping paper around a Compact Disc and literally hand it to someone?

Some of my most cherished musical experiences were jamming out to classical music in my bedroom — listening to CD’s my violin teachers gifted me.

I wanted to do the same thing for my studio as a new year’s gift, but I had to think carefully how to do so. I decided a matching playlist over multiple platforms was best. Though it didn’t guarantee students could/would listen, at least it was something free I could pass on. I could put my own twist on it. It would be an opportunity for exploration… a launching point.

The Spotify playlist and YouTube playlists are embedded below.

Do you notice any common threads? I aimed to share music that I both loved and I thought were in some way ‘new’ for the classical community.

New artists. LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists. Female musicians. Queer composers. Non western-classical composers. Innovative performance techniques. Different instrumentation. Something fresh.

Is it possible to teach grounded in the Suzuki philosophy without overemphasizing the white, patriarchal heritage of the standardized Suzuki repertoire? Perhaps. But I know that right now, in 2021, I can be sharing music beyond that limited scope with my students who I hope to be music lovers, not just violinists, and not just classical violinists. If we hope to develop the citizenship of our students then as teachers we must use our platform to direct our students to ‘new,’ openminded, expansive, liberating music.