teaching

Ms. Cruz is dedicated to teaching music & she's been doing so since 2001. She's made an impact in classrooms and after school programs across the five boroughs of New York City by bringing music education to diaspora communities.

Bassist Renée Cruz taught music via outreach initiatives for the Harmony Program (Housing Authority Residents Musicians of New York) and The Juilliard School Music Advancement Program, Jazz at Lincoln Center's We Bop! Jazz Education Initiative.  She also served as Associate Director of the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra, under David O'Rourke, where she helped steward the development of the young men and women musicians. She's performed a master class series with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt for this program as well, for public school children to learn about the cultural legacy of Jazz music at The Jazz Standard Discovery Program.

She partnered to curate music for the First Fridays community series at Brooklyn Museum to bring the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance Youth Orchestra there to perform for the community. Led by Grammy-Award winning composer and pianist, Arturo O'Farrill, Renée has been an advocate for the mission and successfully partnered to obtain weekly rehearsal space for the youth ensemble. 

Most recently, she developed a master class curriculum with NEA Jazz Master Larry Ridley as host, "The Roots that Produce the Fruits", to introduce school children to the history of Jazz in America and Diaspora Music and Culture.  This program incorporated not only Jazz music and history but also chess, table-tennis and digital fabrication (3D printing and technology) to foster creativity, improvisation and critical inquiry to empower the students.