Dr. Stefanie Gardner, Clarinet, Chamber Music and Music Theory faculty
According to the GRAMMY Museum, the Music Educator Award is a way to say thank you to those teachers who put in hours to make sure that performers continue to love, appreciate and play music. It also recognizes the fact that for every performer who makes it to the GRAMMY stage, there was a teacher who played a critical role in getting them there.
The GRAMMY Museum, the organization behind the GRAMMY Awards, will select 10 finalists including one winner to be recognized for their remarkable impact. The winner will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the GRAMMY Awards, receive the Music Educator Award at a ceremony during GRAMMY Week, plus pick up a $10,000 personal honorarium. All finalists will receive a $1,000 honorarium, while semifinalists receive a $500 honorarium. All honorariums are accompanied by a matching school grant.
Dr. Stefanie Harger Gardner has been named as a quarter-finalist in the competition. The next Music Educator Award Winner will be announced during the upcoming GRAMMY Week.
Stefanie teaches clarinet, chamber music, and music theory at Glendale Community College, previously she served on the faculty at Northern Arizona University. Gardner is listed in 100 Famous Female Clarinetists Throughout History and maintains an active performance career, performing with Arizona Opera, the Phoenix Symphony, Red Rocks Chamber Music Festival, Seventh Roadrunner, the internationally recognized Paradise Winds, and grant-winning Égide Duo, whose mission is to commission, record, and perform music inspiring social change.
She has also performed in concert with Jason Alexander, PitBull, Ceelo, Tony Orlando, Reba McEntire, Michael Bolton, David and Katherine McPhee Foster, Jordin Sparks, Weird Al Yankovic, Hanson, and The Who. Her chamber music albums are recorded on the Soundset label and can be heard on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
Stefanie has performed for the International Clarinet Association (ICA), the International Double Reed Society, the North American Saxophone Alliance, International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, National Flute Association, North American College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the International Viola Congress. Recently, Gardner was invited to perform at the 2023 European Clarinet Association Congress in Tilburg, Netherlands, and has guest artist residencies scheduled at the Huilo Huilo Music Festival in Chile, the University of Sheffield (UK), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2024.
During her term as chair of the ICA New Music Committee, Stefanie founded the biennial ICA Low Clarinet Festival and the annual ICA New Music Weekend. Presently Gardner serves as chair of the ICA Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee and is passionate about building a clarinet community that welcomes everyone (see clarEquality.com for more information).
In 2023 Stefanie was named in the Musical America Top 30 Professionals. Recently, she was awarded “Outstanding Contributions in Private Teaching” by Arizona State University, and hired by Norton Publishing Company to review theory and aural skills textbooks. Gardner received Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Clarinet Performance from Arizona State University studying with Robert Spring. Gardner is a Henri Selmer Paris/Conn-Selmer Performing Artist playing Privilege clarinets, and a Silverstein Pro Team Artist.