Renee Benmeleh

Comments from families to Renee and Renee's bio:

"Thank you so much for providing my kids and I a guaranteed great time each week learning more about music and even dance. It has been a delight to see my children enjoy the different songs and instruments. I can see their little minds working so fast as they are exposed to the different songs. You have brought us so much joy and we hope that this note will let you know how much we appreciate you and all that you have done for us." K.B.

"A___ and I wanted to thank you for your wonderful class. You are such a bubbly and warm person, and we have enjoyed our time with you immensely. We look forward to another session with you this winter, and to more international and multicultural music to sing and dance to!" A.H.

"Thank you for wonderful Music Together sessions this year. We enjoy it very much each week and cannot wait for the next one." H.C.

Renee was born in Caracas, Venezuela, where as a child, she fell in love with the well known Spanish children's music of "Cri-Cri". Growing up with the Moroccan, Greek, Turkish, Sephardi Jewish, and Latin cultures has given Renee her flavor for world music. Renee came to the U.S. in 1980 and received a BA in music with a specialization in vocal performance from Mills College (www.mills.edu). While attending college, she worked for Julie Tanenbaum as her son Zachary's nanny for 6.5 years, and as an in-class aide with a young girl with Asperger's Syndrome. Soon after graduating, Renee took the Level 1 Orff-Schulwerk training (www.aosa.org), became a trained Music Together teacher and later acquired Certification Level 1. For the last nine and a half years Renée Benmeleh has been teaching for East Bay Music Together. For two years she did Music Together sessions for the the children and families at the 5th Floor Playroom at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She also facilitates children’s musical birthday parties, and assists an elder through her last years.

In 2003 she put out a CD demo with three Jazz standards and a personal R & B composition, which were recorded at Mills College. After many years of exploring other’s music, she feels the call to refocus on her own compositions and has been performing her own work publicly in the Bay Area.

Renée has studied drum technique with Bruce Silverman, founder and director of the Sons and Daughters of Orpheus, an Afro-Brazilian, Caribbean, and Jewish Music ensemble for performance and ritual, and she is an experienced drummer on Djembe, Conga, Doumbek, and various Brazilian Bateria instruments. She continues to love and pursue music in ritual settings, with a personal focus on Lakota ceremonial singing and drumming in the last ten years, and in her own Jewish roots more recently as a vocalist at Chochmat Halev, a Jewish renewal Congregation in Berkeley, CA., (www.chochmat.org) and at Shir Ha Shirim (www.shirhashirim.net). She has taught the rhythms of Nigeria, Brazil, and West Africa for groups and is currently an enlivened drum circle facilitator, trained by Arthur Hull and Village Music Circles www.drumcircle.com.

In 2008, Renee acquired a Certificate in Sound, Voice, Music, and Healing, from California Institute of Integral Studies (www.ciis.edu). Her final project in the class focused on music during gestation and birth, providing the opportunity to support a woman musically through her pregnancy and birth, which was one of the highest moments of her life! Renée is excited about the possibility of supporting a woman’s birth process through music in the future.

Following her recent studies on the Native American cedar flute with Suzanne Teng (www.suzanneteng.com), Renée connected with Peruvian sound healer Tito La Rosa (www.ayni.org) to continue her sound-work studies, which also include a variety of native flutes, kalimba, shakers, and more recently, the Arabic Ney flute.

Renée is elated by the healing power that music has had on her soul and her life, and she is lifted by the sweetness of sharing this connection with her world community!
Renee is a Registered and Certified Music Together teacher.