Bow & Heart is a Suzuki-based program founded by violinist Maggie Gould Wilson as her capstone project for the MA Arts Management and Entrepreneurship program. Bow & Heart is a collective of violin students, their teachers, and their families located in New York City. Fulfilling a need for group playing—a crucial part of Suzuki learning that supplements private instruction—Bow & Heart meets in community centers and schools twice a month. Faculty members co-teach sessions and rotate instruction, so that both students and teachers can offer one another fresh perspectives and energy.
Bow & Heart had met only four times before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, in the spring 2020 semester, whereupon all classes were moved to Zoom. Although the transition posed some challenges, the classes proved so enjoyable, comforting, and exciting that Bow & Heart decided to extend its virtual classes through April 2021.
While the classes followed the Suzuki approach, with teachers rotating instruction every two weeks, Bow & Heart initiated a theme for each class in the spring semester. The program brought in Broadway music directors and pit musicians for a Broadway Bonanza session, Nashville fiddlers for a Fiddle Faddle session, a violinist to coach students on music and technology using a looper pedal, Art Beyond the Ink to “illustrate” music, and other guests and themes to prevent Zoom fatigue. Bow & Heart also added monthly studio classes for older, more advanced students.
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