The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
–Cameron, age 10
Adam Woldt, pastor of the Point Church in Knoxville, opened his doors to our Spring Recitals in May, our first in-person recitals in four years. Even more awesome: It’s the same building that had hosted our recital from 2012 to 2015! It was great to be back, Adam!
We see kids do amazing things every day, and the music they make is only the beginning. This is especially true for one student, Carla, who is a student in our Music Production and Engineering for Teens course and takes saxophone lessons with Caleb Lukkarila, a former JoMS student-turned-instructor.
Carla has always had a passion for helping others. Anywhere she went, she would stop to give pocket change to those in need when their paths crossed. Eventually, she began bringing change along with her, and even some of her favorite snacks, always ready to give to those in need. In 2021, at age 13, she founded Lizzy’s Pocket Change Ministry, a nonprofit that allows her to take her passion for helping others from pocket change to community-wide impact. (“Lizzy” is Carla’s nickname.)
Today, Lizzy’s Pocket Change distributes care packages to unhoused members of the community on a regular basis. These packages are filled with nonperishable food, hygiene items, and notes of encouragement. Carla is an inspiration who is making a powerful impact our community, and we are proud to be a part of her world. The budding saxophonist’s kind heart and selfless acts show that even a little pocket change can create meaningful change for others.
She first walked into the Joy of Music School as a shy 6-year-old who wanted to learn piano. Now,12 years later, Eriana is heading to the University of Virginia, where she earned a full-ride scholarship and will major in astrophysics. We couldn’t be prouder!
“Eriana has a multitude of talents, but is never boastful about it,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo, who taught Eriana piano lessons for years. “She works hard, and develops her skills from the inside out. Then, when she performs, it all comes out at once and it’s fully developed. I’ve always been astounded by her exemplary focus on developing herself and sharing her talents.”
That’s not lost on her proud grandparents, Norma and John Mele. “Frank has been such a mentor,” says Norma. “She learned the language of music from him, and he prodded her to perform and sing in front of others, which really brought Eriana out of her shell.”
Eriana draws a direct line between the lessons she learned as a music student and her excellent academic record at Knoxville’s West High School. She even wrote a note to Frank, thanking him for always challenging her to get better at music, for developing a work ethic that spilled over into her other studies.
Once at UVA, Eriana hopes to be part of its musical community, either through a university choir or an a cappella group—or both! She also imagines minoring in visual art, such as painting.
So how did she choose astrophysics as a major? “I’ve always been interested by space,” she says. “I’m fascinated by its limitlessness.”
We feel the same way about your potential, Eriana. Best wishes for a wonderful college career from your JoMS family!
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The Joy of Music School celebrated our successful 2022-2023 year of lessons and classes with not one, not two, but three Spring Recitals!
We were very pleased to return to the former First Christian Church, now known as the Point, for our Marilyn and James Dick Memorial Spring Recital on Saturday May 6. Forty-nine students performed, including the Introduction to Music Classes and the Baritone Ukulele Classes, followed by a buffet taco bar dinner in the fellowship hall.
Students and teachers who meet for their lessons online were featured on May 8 on Zoom. Seven students performed their selections on violin, piano and guitar. Joy of Music volunteer teachers who continue to teach on Zoom, some of whom are even out of state, were thrilled to enjoy their students’ performances from a distance.
On May 9 the JoMS Spring Strings Recital featured our violin students taught by the University of Tennessee School of Music String Pedagogy Class. These UT students teach for credit at JoMS and are supervised by Professor Hillary Herndon. Seven violin students performed along with an alto saxophone duet, who played The Second Waltz by Dimitri Shostakovich. It was quite the fun closer to a remarkable recital series!
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One of our board members has teamed up with one of our most generous donors to create a special series of videos to help spread the word about our School.
Clay Prewitt, a group creative director at the Tombras advertising agency, is producing the videos, and the star is Whitney Mitchell, founder and owner of Pipe Wrench Home Services.
In the videos, Whitney talks about the future of youth in our community — and how learning music is good for their character, teaches them discipline and increases their confidence in themselves. As Clay puts it: “Music isn’t just learning to play a melody, it’s learning a lot about life.”
“When I heard about the Joy of Music School, I just knew I wanted to be a part of that,” says Whitney. “Our children are our future, and anything we can do to help them become more well- rounded is so important.”
The footage was shot by Knoxville documentary film maker Edy Recendez and features interviews with Whitney and JoMS Executive Director Frank Graffeo. It also includes some shots of our students and their instructors during lessons at the School.
The plan is to create spots of varying length that can run on TV, social media, YouTube, our website, at public events and so on. Clay figures they’ll be edited and ready for viewing in the late summer/early fall, so keep your eyes out for them.
Thanks to Clay and Whitney for making this possible!
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The School is a founding member of the Knoxville Area Mentoring Initiative (KAMI), a coalition of youth- mentoring organizations. These organizations work to improve the lives of young people in economically hard-hit areas. KAMI organizations benefit from U.S. Department of Justice funding support in areas most affected by America’s opioid crisis, which includes East Tennessee. Along with this financial support comes a mandate to provide information and awareness opportunities for KAMI mentors and staffs.
One such event took place in July in our building, entitled, “The Scope of the Opioid Problem.” Jessica Stanley of the Metro Drug Coalition and Lieutenant Josh Shaffer of the Knoxville Police Department shared the podium and delivered an impactful and informative presentation on the opioid epidemic and its influence on youth in areas served by the Joy of Music School and others.
“We received training and information ranging from what to do in the event of an overdose to a description of the illegal drug trade doing so much damage Tennessee,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo. JoMS Development and Marketing Manager Hannah Lozano, who has extensive training in social work, adds, “Jessica and Lt. Shaffer showed us just how hard we need to fight back to protect the young people we serve. And music mentoring is our chosen way among many.”
The United Way of Greater Knoxville last year awarded funding to our School through a grant program designed to support outcome-based initiatives such as our music-based mentoring program. Along with the award, the Joy of Music School became an official partner agency of the United Way! We are excited and grateful to announce that this funding has been extended to continue into the new fiscal year.
Thanks to the East Tennessee Foundation for supporting our summer programming and to the City of Knoxville for supporting us through its Community Agency Grant program, which aims to maximize community resources. This partnership has been crucial over the years and continues to help us serve our community. We appreciate the City’s focus on arts and culture in their support of community resources!
We are ever grateful to our stalwart foundation supporters, including the Tennessee Arts Commission (which is giving us substantially more this year than ever before), Knoxville Leadership Foundation (championing our mentorship program), and the Arts and Cultural Alliance (supporting capacity-building). We could not do our work without the generosity of these incredible organizations.
Our trombone student Arlo has been on a roll lately. He auditioned for the East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association Junior Band Clinic in the spring and earned second chair. That qualified him for All-State, which meant he got a five-day trip to Nashville to play with the best young musicians in Tennessee. More recently he participated in the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra’s summer program at Bearden High.
Just a year before, Arlo had tried out for the East Tennessee clinic and didn’t make the cut. That’s a pretty big jump to go from not making the orchestra to being in All-State!
“He has matured,” says Julie Carter, our Director of Music Education. “He’s grown a lot this past year. He’s worked really hard, and he’s got a great teacher in Myron Percy.”
So what’s his secret? “There’s not really any secret,” says Myron. “You put in the time and you get the results.” He describes Arlo as an excellent student who “comes in with the right attitude and does the work.” He adds: “Arlo’s parents support him a lot. They give him a good place to practice and they encourage him. His sister, Birdie, is also a Joy of Music School student.”
Arlo, who’s a junior at South Doyle High School, says his other hobbies are beekeeping and working out. But the trombone definitely plays a special part in his daily routine. He strives to practice every day, usually for an hour or so. And it shows!
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Joy of Music School violin student London recently shared the stage with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma as part of an extraordinary experience in Knoxville.
The occasion was Return to Your Roots, a festival in late May that was organized by the remarkable Kim Smith, who has two kids in our School, and presented by Our Common Nature, a weeklong celebration of Appalachian voices. We are so grateful for the Smith family’s kindness in sharing indigenous culture, tradition, and food with the community, and for inviting a fellow Joy of Music School student to perform.
The Yo-Yo Ma performance took place at the UT Mound, a sacred Cherokee site revered for nearly 2,000 years. In addition to our student London and Yo-Yo Ma, the Raven Rock Dancers performed. “I was so excited to get this amazing opportunity to hear Yo-Yo Ma perform and actually play my violin at the same event,” says London. Adds her mother, Melanie: “We are so thankful that London has been able to have consistent instruction in violin over the past seven years.”
Opportunities like these are the result of the hard work and dedication of many people and could not be possible without our volunteers who provide access to high-quality music education and mentoring. London’s violin teacher, Dr. Miro Hristov, is a tenured professor at the University of Tennessee who volunteers his time to teach students at the Joy of Music School.
Hello again! You may have missed our newsletter since the last one in October. It’s back. Oh, and I’m back too—since December. I am so happy and energized to be here again, and with a renewed energy to make this amazing School the best it can be. The Joy of Music School is quickly building momentum (see the rest of this newsletter), and keeping the focus on the main thing: our students. While my 10 months in Chicago were a mixture of challenge, uplift, and education, the personal effect of my time away from home solidified my connection—once seemingly lost—to this amazing place. Fortune smiled on Christy, Enzo and me, and we are back in our beloved Knoxville. Christy is diving back into the music scene, playing viola in her quartet, and in orchestras across the state. Enzo, now 18, is headed to Tennessee Tech to major in engineering and minor in cello this fall. I reminisce about workdays at JoMS in 2005, my first year, with baby Enzo snoozing in his car carrier next to my desk! But now we’ve all grown up a bit, and the workdays are focused on recruiting volunteer teachers, and informing families about the life-changing opportunity that tuition-free music training offers their children.
Francis Graffeo
Executive Director
We are very happy to announce that Hannah Lozano has joined the Joy of Music School as Development and Marketing Manager. She will interact with our generous donors, foundations, and businesses that support the School. Hannah will also oversee our efforts to make the Joy of Music School a household word across East Tennessee.
“Hannah’s strong affinity for our programs, grants expertise, and deep experience in youth-serving organizations make her a strong addition to our excellent staff,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo.
Hannah, a native Texan, has served as development coordinator at Harmony Family Center of Knoxville, and recently worked with the Knox Education Foundation as a Community School site coordinator, interacting with students and families in its youth-focused programs. Throughout her career, Hannah has worked in after-school and in-school programming, including valuable experience coordinating with Joy of Music School outreach teachers at Dogwood and Lonsdale Elementary Schools!
Hannah enjoys reading and spending time with her partner, Evan, and hanging out with their dog, Reina.
Our seventh annual Swing for Joy fundraising event is coming up fast, and it looks to be bigger and better than ever. The date is Tuesday, Sept. 19 and the venue is a new one for us — the popular and highly rated Egwani Farms Golf Course in Rockland, about a 15-minute drive from downtown Knoxville.
Registration begins at 11:30 and the cost is $125 per player, or $500 for a foursome. That includes lunch, beverages, prizes and golf!
Unlike some other fundraiser tournaments, we limit our participation to 80 players, which means that the round will move along quickly. It’s a scramble format, ensuring that players of all levels — even true beginners — can contribute to their team and have FUN!
A few sponsorships remain available, some for as little as $100, according to event co-chairs Cindi Alpert and Trey Coleman. For tickets and more info, please visit joyofmusicschool.org. See you at the course!
Joy of Music School 