When Michelle Cruz returned to Pawtucket after attending Providence College, she was discouraged to see that the music program that was cut while she was a student at the Elizabeth Baldwin Elementary School had not come back and there seemed to be no place in the budget for a resurrection.
After several frustrating school committee meetings and after being treated as a young college student who didn’t know what she was talking about, she decided to do something about it herself.
Growing up, she was inspired by two teachers who, with their own money, funded entire music productions to bring the arts to Cruz and her fellow students. “I saw how selflessly they wanted it to happen, and they made it happen, no matter what they had to do,” said Cruz. “Seeing that completely inspired me to do the same.”
So in 2004 Cruz, 29, a musician and songwriter, founded The Lost Chord, which became an official nonprofit in January. Through donations and fundraising from The Lost Chord Music Festival, it provides instruments and free music lessons to children in Pawtucket and in other communities. It is an effort to foster a love for the arts, something Cruz – who has a musical family – feels children growing up without that advantage would not have.
In 2005 Cruz began giving free music workshops to the students at her former elementary school, determined to teach the children music after one student asked, “What’s an instrument?”
Through a PC alumna, she subsequently got access to space at the Music Mansion on Providence’s East Side. There she began giving music classes once a week after work, all the while maintaining her own music career with performances on the weekends.
“I always wanted to have [the lessons] free, because when I was growing up, I couldn’t afford the lessons. And I know a lot of kids can’t,” she said.
In 2006, in the belief that her students should be able to have their own instruments to practice on, she put together The Lost Chord Music Festival. She invited some of her musician friends to perform at the event, held at Tazza in downtown Providence. It sold out, and in fact there was a line out the door, said Adam Luaces, a friend of Cruz who performed at the festival.
“She’s doing it, when most of us just talk about it,” said Luaces about his admiration for Cruz. “She has no money, no fame, she’s just trying to help kids learn to play music.”
Her main goal is to start a jazz / rock / blues / folk camp, and have different musicians come for each section to teach not only about music, but also about being a musician, about writing and about the business of it. She also hopes to be able to include adults in The Lost Chord classes as well.
Her efforts are being noticed. Earlier this year she was nominated for the 2008 Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader of the Year award. And for the last three years, beginning in 2006, she won the foundation’s Emerging Leader scholarship.
Cruz is planning this year’s music festival, although setting the exact time has been delayed in the face of tragedy. Her long-time boyfriend and Lost Chord supporter, Ken Bento, recently passed away. She credits him for helping her achieve her greatest accomplishment: never giving up.
“I was getting frustrated with it, thinking I couldn’t change anything. And he just reminded me of what you can do with one person, one at a time,” Cruz said.
“You don’t have to change the world; you can do it little by little, one person at a time. I thank him forever for that.” •
