Jazz Education

The history of jazz is steeped in the artist seeking musical influences of other cultures and, thereby, leaving the essence of jazz in their wake - jazz to be adopted by the very cultures that they were exploring.

Heritage Jazz is a program for teens (11-18) representing historically marginalized populations where an artist representing an ethnocentric sub-genre of jazz and a musicologist are paired with youth of that ethnicity for a workshop  intended to broaden the understanding of how the youths' musical cultures influenced jazz and how jazz, consequently, became integrated with those cultures. The program also considers historical gender diversity as a means of empowering all genders to pursue musicianship and exposure, 

The program is intended to fund artist residencies in Miami and the participation of musicologists from universities and to be delivered in assemblies or in destination venues as "field trips" with participation of  the county school system.

Heritage Jazz prepares youth to better understand how jazz relates to their lives and their heritage and aims to create both appreciation and musical exploration.