We Are Golden: Affirming Identities in the Music Classroom

Workshop Description

We are golden, and we can collectively affirm ourselves, our students, and our communities through music education. “We Are Golden: Affirmation Identities in the Music Classroom” will be a brave, musical space for us to continue our necessary healing, create and speak truth to our own identities as music educators, and activate ourselves and the young musicians in our lives to be change-makers in their own communities. 

About Alice Tsui

ALICE TSUI 徐晓兰 (pronounced TSOY) is an Asian American/Chinese American pianist, Grammy Music Educator Award Finalist, scholar, activist, dog mom, and lifelong Brooklyn, New Yorker! She is the Founding Music Teacher and Arts Coordinator at PS 532 New Bridges Elementary, an arts-integrated public elementary school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance and a Master of Arts degree in Music Education, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Music Education at Boston University (ABD). Alice is an Adjunct Professor at New York University. Alice is a Moderator and Contributor for Decolonizing the Music Room, and a Visionary Board Member of F-flat Books. Alice actively leads interactive presentations as a Core Faculty educator at Carnegie Hall’s Music Educators Workshop. Alice regularly facilitates citywide and national professional development on a multitude of topics including antiracist music education, student voice and empowerment with affirmations, and joy in the music classroom. Alice lectures and presents internationally on teaching and engaging students and teachers from the philosophical to the practical in culturally responsive and sustaining music education. Alice has publications in the Oxford Handbook of Care in Music Education and Music Educators Journal. Her first children’s book, We Are Golden 我们是金的, is a bilingual Mandarin Chinese and English, interactive musical ebook that speaks to antiracism, affirmation, and self-reflection through music. As a performer, Alice has played at Carnegie Hall, the World Financial Center, Tenri Cultural Institute, Central Park, and numerous public outdoor spaces with Sing for Hope. Prior to her NYU appointment, Alice has served on the Music Education adjunct faculty of City University of New York Queens College’s Aaron Copland School of Music, and on the Piano Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Summer program.

As a product of the New York City public school system, she is passionate about decolonizing, ABAR (anti-bias, anti-racist), and abolitionist public music education. Alice aims to empower the individual and collective voices of youth through music as expression. As an activist, Alice uplifts the solidarities between the Black and AAPI communities. She has been featured for her activism on multiple news platforms including NBC, USA Today, and NowThis News. Learn more about Alice at www.alicetsui.com and connect with Alice on Instagram/TikTok @musicwithmissalice.