SEC
AS A Teaching Artist...
recipient of the 2019 Yale School of Music's Distinguished Teaching Artist Award.
Carnegie Hall Musical Connections at Sing Sing Correctional Facility:
Charles is one of the leaders of this workshop in which teaching artists work with students who are a part of the Sing Sing Correctional musical community. The workshops’ areas of focus include performance, instrument-based training, arranging, composition/songwriting and production. Each session allows for the musicians in the community to hone their skills and everyone working on this project is greatly committed to both the members of the workshop who are still on the inside as well as those who are now on the outside. Charles has been co-leading this project with other teaching artists for two years and working with the Musical Connections community at Sing Sing as a guest artist for four years. Carnegie itself has been invested in this work for ten years and continues its commitment well into the future.
Carnegie Hall Future Music Project Songwriting Class (currently on pause):
Charles has helped develop the Future Music Project’s Songwriting Class at Carnegie Hall. She has been one of the leaders of this workshop in which teaching artists work with high school aged students on the development of their skills as songwriters and musicians. Meeting weekly with students has allowed this project to focus on aiding the participants in finding their individual voice, delving into/analyzing the repertoire the great songwriters who have paved the way and creating work to be showcased in performances both at Carnegie Hall and around New York City by various artists including the students themselves.
Rise2Shine (non-profit early childhood education facility in Fond Parisien, Haiti):
Over the past five years, Charles has developed an early childhood music education curriculum for the children of Rise2Shine. Rise2Shine was founded by Jit Vaitha after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti in the small town of Fond Parisien. After the earthquake, this town displayed a large need for daycare so that older children could go to school and parents could work. Charles has traveled to Haiti one-two times per year to train the teachers in early childhood music education utilizing elements both of Haitian culture/music and from Kindermusik teaching techniques. Charles’ father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and therefore this work is very dear not only to her artistic, but also to her personal identity.
The New School University (private lessons instructor and adjunct professor):
Charles currently teaches private lessons to vocal students at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. She has also developed/designed a class called “Jazz and Gender” that ran for the first time in the Spring of 2018 and that she now teaches with Dr. Caroline Davis. This course takes a historical, sociological, research, and personally explorative approach to discussions on the topic of gender/sexual identity and how it relates to Jazz/Black American Music. She and Dr. Davis are in the process of helping to curate and design more environments at The New School and in the Jazz/Black American Music community in which the realities of this subject can be discussed in a safe and open manner.
Charles is one of the leaders of this workshop in which teaching artists work with students who are a part of the Sing Sing Correctional musical community. The workshops’ areas of focus include performance, instrument-based training, arranging, composition/songwriting and production. Each session allows for the musicians in the community to hone their skills and everyone working on this project is greatly committed to both the members of the workshop who are still on the inside as well as those who are now on the outside. Charles has been co-leading this project with other teaching artists for two years and working with the Musical Connections community at Sing Sing as a guest artist for four years. Carnegie itself has been invested in this work for ten years and continues its commitment well into the future.
Carnegie Hall Future Music Project Songwriting Class (currently on pause):
Charles has helped develop the Future Music Project’s Songwriting Class at Carnegie Hall. She has been one of the leaders of this workshop in which teaching artists work with high school aged students on the development of their skills as songwriters and musicians. Meeting weekly with students has allowed this project to focus on aiding the participants in finding their individual voice, delving into/analyzing the repertoire the great songwriters who have paved the way and creating work to be showcased in performances both at Carnegie Hall and around New York City by various artists including the students themselves.
Rise2Shine (non-profit early childhood education facility in Fond Parisien, Haiti):
Over the past five years, Charles has developed an early childhood music education curriculum for the children of Rise2Shine. Rise2Shine was founded by Jit Vaitha after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti in the small town of Fond Parisien. After the earthquake, this town displayed a large need for daycare so that older children could go to school and parents could work. Charles has traveled to Haiti one-two times per year to train the teachers in early childhood music education utilizing elements both of Haitian culture/music and from Kindermusik teaching techniques. Charles’ father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and therefore this work is very dear not only to her artistic, but also to her personal identity.
The New School University (private lessons instructor and adjunct professor):
Charles currently teaches private lessons to vocal students at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. She has also developed/designed a class called “Jazz and Gender” that ran for the first time in the Spring of 2018 and that she now teaches with Dr. Caroline Davis. This course takes a historical, sociological, research, and personally explorative approach to discussions on the topic of gender/sexual identity and how it relates to Jazz/Black American Music. She and Dr. Davis are in the process of helping to curate and design more environments at The New School and in the Jazz/Black American Music community in which the realities of this subject can be discussed in a safe and open manner.