Knoxville’s 2015 Big Ears Festival was not just a huge hit among music fans. It was highly supportive of our mission at the Joy of Music School.

“We felt it was important to give back to the community through local organizations focused on music and the arts,” says Neeley Rice, Community Programs Organizer at the event’s producer, AC Entertainment. “The Joy of Music School was a natural fit.”

Through its “Little Ears” project, the festival donated a portion of ticket sales to the Joy of Music School as well as Knoxville’s Community School of the Arts. Big Ears also gave us a few passes to the shows for our students and volunteer teachers, and it allowed students and family members to sit in on four Kronos Quartet rehearsals!

We got a special treat the day before Big Ears, when the pioneering electronic duo Silver Apples came by the School for a performance and discussion. Saturday of the festival, Found Sound Nation invited our kids to record at its open air studio in downtown Knoxville, posting the results at foundsoundnation.org.

Let’s give a big hurrah, too, to our friends at Tomato Head. They contributed net proceeds from their sale of commemorative Big Ears pint glasses, and their Market Square and Bearden restaurants displayed photos of our kids practicing and performing.

 

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