Original: Englisch, Deutsch is auto-übersetzt
a bit about myself
Over my community and social work​
I'm Juan David Garzón, a socially engaged musician, music educator, workshop leader, and trainer based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. My life’s mission is facilitating social change through the power of improvisation, music, and play.
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My work spans across several organizations around Europe and the Americas, where I focus on community development, youth work, and youth leadership. Through exploring and experimenting with inter-cultural communication, diversity, democracy, inclusion, belonging, climate engagement, human rights education, peace, and solidarity, I aim to create positive change in society. I have experience working with communities and individuals who have undergone significant stress due to refuge seeking, culture clash, extreme poverty, and social injustice in Colombia, Germany, UK, and The Netherlands. You can see examples of my work here.
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As an educator, my goal is to work towards a new and more inclusive, non-hierarchical, non-formal, humane, cooperative, and connecting teaching style. I currently teach at the music education department at Javeriana University in Bogotá and serve as a guest teacher at universities and further education institutions across Europe, including the Musikhochschule Lübeck, Hochschule Düsseldorf, Hochschule Den Haag, Landesmusikakademie NRW, and others. By supporting a new generation of music educators, musicians, social workers, and music therapists, I hope to inspire them to rethink the way our societies learn and connect.
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Since 2019, I have also been advising cultural and education organizations such as the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia, the Landesmusikrat NRW, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Through these partnerships, I help develop and integrate the concepts of community development, inclusion, and belonging into their projects, creating social change through music and play from the bottom up in the 3 levels I always envisioned to create change: directly with young people, with educators and with developers of social structures.
Technology supported teaching and learning
I am a consultant and educator specializing in developing sustainable online and digitally supported teaching strategies for institutions and teachers. Over the past 17 years, I have developed and implemented an innovative methodology that utilizes the internet as a research trip and motivational tool for students, enabling deeper connections with learners beyond the traditional classroom setting.
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Since 2020, my consulting services have focused on supporting the transition to online music education and online music therapy, while researching sustainable ways to integrate analog and digital learning experiences. My vision is to shape the future of music education and facilitation by envisioning how it could seamlessly incorporate these new technologies.
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As a lecturer for the postgraduate studies in “Musical training methods” at the Javeriana University, for 15 years I have taught a course on "Internet and New Technologies in Music Teaching." Recently, I started teaching at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia, and supporting the University of Barcelona in their Master's degree in music therapy in their approach to remote music therapy.
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I have presented my work at numerous conferences and given workshops in Colombia and the Caribbean, including the Latin American Forum for Music Education (Fladem) in Guatemala. The institutions I have advised on virtualization and digitization of learning and teaching include the University of Agder in Kristiansand (Norway), the Landesmusikakademie NRW and Thüringer Landesmusikakademie Sondershausen in Germany, and the Catalan Association for Music Therapy and Musicians Without Borders with their "Soy Música" project in El Salvador.
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By leveraging the potential of the internet and new technologies, I am committed to supporting institutions in creating engaging, sustainable, and innovative learning experiences that will prepare students for success in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Over My artistic work
Next to all my other work I love to share my passion for the guitar and bass guitar with students of all levels in private lessons (Find out more).
I received my professional music education at the Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia, where I had the opportunity to study under renowned European musicians such as Tilmann Dehnhard, Rupert Stamm, Anette Wizisla, Christoph Adams, Johannes Bockholt and American vibraphonist, David Friedman. I studied bass with Cesar Cortés, Diego Nicolás Rodríguez, Mauricio Sichacá, Alfonso (Pocho) Cruz and Luís Alfonso (Lucho) Guevara. It was also here where I started my career as music educator and now all of my students have become music enthusiasts some even successful professional musicians (Meet my students).
In addition to teaching, I am involved in several music projects where I combine different cultures and beats to create something unique and special (Find out more). My main artistic project is ANTIPODA, a Colombian heavy rock band, of which I am the bass player. With this band I've gained most of my live, studio and industry experience, having played in massive festivals like Rock al Parque, supported bands like Opeth and Katatonia, produced music with multi-award winning producers like Daniel Bergstrand at Dugout Productions and collaborated with artists like Dung Hoang.