At the Cornelia Connelly Center (a middle school serving young women from low income families), Mr. Neuman co-founded a bi-weekly arts block, where he taught group piano-lab and developed a Women’s Music History curriculum. The latter includes a focus on pertinent historic and current female musicians of color, an in depth discussion of Afro-Cuban musical history and its influence on American culture, and a critical look at urban slang in Hip-hop culture). He leads brass and jazz instruction at Princeton Day School and runs the contemporary music ensemble, 'Pulse,' at the Peddie school.
Musicworks has also hosted several volunteer teaching seminars for students of low income families abroad with Fundación Brass Band del Ecuador (Quito), Deportes Pana (Guatemala), and Cambodian Living Arts (Siem Reap). Across 10 weeks, Mr. Neuman worked with teens on applying their skills toward improvisation, student-led collaboration, and understanding Western-Classical theory and notation, as well as teacher training. He recently led summer teens on study abroad programs for Putney Student Travel’s and National Geographic’s first trips to Cuba since 2001, teaching the roots Afro-Cuban music and dance and networking with local artists.
"Musicworks is such a successful and engaging program because Jesse Neuman and his fellow clinicians treat students as human beings, and the kids rise to the occasion to an astonishing degree." -Elizabeth Frascoia, Governor’s Institute of Vermont