How did you get involved with ZUMIX?
I saw a job opening on Idealist in 2015. I was on tour with my band, and we were stuck in North Carolina when our van broke down. I had just left teaching at a charter school, and I got an interview with ZUMIX. They were partnering with the Umana K-8 School at the time, and so I taught there on Tuesdays and Thursdays as part of the Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Grant. I taught private lessons on Fridays and Saturdays.
Eventually, I moved back to New Jersey for a few years, and when I came back to Boston, I knew I wanted to come back to ZUMIX. I always liked working here–the community, the neighborhood, the students.
I started teaching private lessons again, and then I took on the ukulele classes, the DiverCity Band, and the rock ensemble, which is now known as Beware of Denise. It got to the point where I was here every day, Monday through Friday, and even on Saturdays, before the pandemic.
Now I teach full-time at Boston Arts Academy, but I still do the ukulele classes, and Beware of Denise. And I’ve lived in Eastie since 2021, so it’s my neighborhood now.
Tell us about Beware of Denise–it’s such a great group.
Initially, this group was the ZUMIX rock ensemble. Ramsel Gonzalez, who used to teach Rock Ed, wanted to create a natural progression for the Rock Ed program, a place for those students to go. Its first iteration actually had two students from the Umana, where I taught for a while.
We lost a bunch of our students during COVID, but it’s come back. Jordan [Treminio] started the pipeline from Revere High School to Beware of Denise, and since then we’ve had a consistent crew from Revere High in the group.
How did you get involved with Walk for Music?
I would always go to Walk for Music to support. DiverCity performed at the Walk one year, and that was pretty exciting. The last two years, we’ve formed a staff band. I like the tradition of it. I love walking around the neighborhood, the community.
Walk for Music feels like a staple of the Eastie neighborhood. It’s always beautiful to walk around together and have everyone come out. It’s almost like a parade. Some years it rains, some years it’s beautiful, some years it’s hot. I even came to Walk for Music in 2017, when I was living in New Jersey, because I happened to be in town for a gig.
Do you have a favorite Walk for Music memory?
Last year, Beware of Denise opened up the show after the Walk in Piers Park, and they played a lot of original music. That was a lot of fun. We had several graduating seniors, and they did a great job.
Why do you Walk for Music?
Because I walk for youth, and I walk for Eastie. There’s also something very creative about walking–there’s all this research about how you’re more creative when you’re walking. Biologically, we are nomadic people, and we learn to survive by walking. Movement ties into the idea of creativity and the idea of music.
I read somewhere that art is what you do with space, and music is how you fill time. So walking for music is a very cool way to walk, and to fill time.
Chris Lee-Rodriguez is a faculty member at Boston Arts Academy and a longtime teaching artist at ZUMIX.
