Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Monthly Archives: October 2015


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How We Spread the Joy

The Joy of Music School happily welcomes more than 200 kids to our building for lessons and classes every week, but our influence extends way beyond these four walls. Every year we engage as many as 1,000 young people with the art and discipline of music in after-school programs and summer classes.

This year, with support from your donations, the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Jeff Breazeale Foundation (see page 5), we are sending four teachers out to a record 14 area organizations, including Boys & Girls Clubs, Urban Family Outreach, Wesley House, and the Great Schools Partnership’s 21st Century Learning Center programs.

This fall we’ve added a new teacher to our outreach programming, Doris Moreland, a retired elementary school teacher from Sequoyah Hills Elementary. Welcome Doris! She joins Joe Jordan, Will Carter and Anthony Hussey as they fan out into the community and reach those children and teens who cannot make it to our building, but who still want music in their lives.

Outreach was an important part of our founder’s vision. James Dick knew that many children in East Tennessee couldn’t simply hop into a parent’s car after school and get a ride to a music lesson. He felt these musical children should not be denied opportunities to learn and grow just because they can’t get here.

Music changes lives—at home or on the road! If you know of an after-school music program that could use a music teacher, free of charge, let us know. Music is everywhere. Let’s be sure there are musicians everywhere, too! Students at Urban Family Outreach Photo by Wilson Browning


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An Anniversary of Note

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A little fanfare, if you please: a trumpet’s flourish for our Director of Music Education Julie Carter, who is celebrating her 10th year at the Joy of Music School this fall.

“Ten years. Can you believe it!?” asks Julie.

Yes we can—and we’re ever so grateful for them.

“Julie cares deeply about the kids, their families and the results, which go beyond the musical,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo. “She is helping our teachers improve young lives. She is generous with big hugs to celebrate the triumphs. She holds little hands when a performance doesn’t go as planned. Julie supervises a first-class operation.”

Today Julie oversees a music program that includes 106 volunteers teaching 215 students in 21 different instruments, plus outreach programs reaching an additional 1,000 kids throughout our area. We had just 18 teachers and 45 students when she started in 2005.

Julie, who has a bachelor’s in music from the University of Tennessee, with additional studies at Juilliard and Stetson University, was working as part-time music teacher at Greenway School back then. She heard about an opening at the Joy of Music School and decided to apply.

Julie knew about the School because her mother had taught piano lessons to our founder, radio station pioneer An Anniversary of Note and philanthropist James A. Dick. But not everyone else in Knoxville was so familiar with it. One of her first projects was finding violin teachers for 25 students whose instructor had left. “That was really hard,” she says. “We didn’t have the kind of public awareness that we do now.” In typical fashion, she jumped right in and started fixing the problem. “

I got my daughter, Lili, to teach three of them and we just gradually started building up the teacher roster,” she says. The School’s “awesome” staff, a group that has been in place for the past few years, makes Julie’s job a lot easier these days, she explains. “They’ve taken a lot of stuff that I used to have to worry about off my desk.”

Now she can focus on our music programs themselves. As she puts it: “matching the students to volunteers, making sure they have the instruments and music they need, running the classes (we have five of them), and managing the outreach program, which has grown exponentially.”

The best thing about her job? “The people I meet,” she says. “The volunteers, the board members, the staff, the families, and the kids. My favorite is getting to meet all these people who love music and love kids and are right in there swinging for them.”

It’s safe to say nobody cares as much about them as Julie, and for that we say, THANK YOU!


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A Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

A friend gave me 50-yard-line tickets for a University of Tennessee Vols game last season and I was absolutely inspired … by the band! Wow! It was a thrilling sound from there—one you don’t get in the cheap seats. The game was good, too. We won (I think). The friend who gave me the football tickets didn’t expect I’d be more inspired by the Pride of the Southland Band than the football game—and neither did I. But that’s how it happened.

The children and teens at the Joy of Music School are no different from any of us when it comes to being inspired. We are all primed for it. It happens in expected, and unexpected ways. When we provide lessons, guidance and performance opportunities to our students here, we realize inspiration can happen in any situation we create for them, but we can never predict the exact moment. It might be when a teacher demonstrates a passage, or when a fellow student nails her solo, or when we provide a family tickets to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, or when a student surprises even himself in a lesson. Kids from fortunate families can pay for all sorts of inspiring experiences. But in the eyes of the Joy of Music School, these experiences should be available to every young person who loves music. Why? Our motto says it all: “Because Inspiration Should Be Free.”

Will you help us keep inspiring our students? Every dollar you donate to the Joy of Music School helps put fresh strings on heavily used violins, replace worn-out guitar cases, buy a crisp new method book for a child’s first piano lesson, and more. A fundraising letter will arrive in your mailbox soon. Please help keep the inspiration free.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director


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Pride and Joy and All That Jazz

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Following is a description of this summer’s Juilliard Jazz for Joy concert/fundraiser. It was written by Knoxville accountant Jenny Hines and originally posted on Facebook.

In 1997, I received a letter from James A. Dick thanking me for agreeing to serve on the Joy of Music School board and stating that the new organization’s fi rst board meeting would be the following Tuesday at noon. One thing you did not do was say no to James Dick—especially if he was your most important client.

I knew from a couple of long lunches and meandering meetings that James Dick had wanted to be a pianist. He settled instead for buying and owning radio stations, beginning with WNOX and expanding to WIVK in Knoxville. It wasn’t such a bad idea because he turned out to be a pretty savvy businessman.

His idea to form the Joy of Music School seemed like a natural investment for Jim Dick’s passion.

He told me that Knoxville was bound to have another young Mozart or Duke Ellington. Well, on July 9 his dream and his vision were realized when Taber Gable and friends Jonathan Barber, Andrew Renfroe and Lesly Valbrun took the stage at the Emporium in downtown Knoxville. They mesmerized a sold-out crowd at a benefit for the very school that James Dick founded. The vision was fulfilled and the hard work of many volunteer and sponsors had come full circle.

There are many success stories from the Joy of Music School, but perhaps Taber’s is the most satisfying because it started here in Knoxville, traveled to Connecticut, where he attended the University of Hartford on a music scholarship, and is now alive and well at Juilliard. Yes, Juilliard.

Taber brought us all to our feet with some original work and with a beautiful rendition of The Tennessee Waltz and a spiritual song where two of his friends sang alongside his brother, Dwayne Gable. It was truly a special moment.

Tom Jester and I had many of our best friends joining us, including Mary-Linda Schwarzbart, Mary Fran Darwin, Dara Canada, Drew Taylor, Rick Fox and Ralph Cianelli. We also were happy to see former Joy of Music School presidents Michael Combs and Rick Carl along with former executive director Marisa Moazen. There were lots of former and current board members including Eleanor W. Barron, Ann Hitch, and Ken Dobbins. And it made me especially happy to see Francis Graff eo, the organization’s current executive director there, full of JOY as he welcomed the full house. But perhaps the best surprise was seeing James Hundley, grandson of James Dick and a current board member, who had driven in from Nashville with his father to attend the event. And they had brought with them Marilyn Dick, wife of James and one of the School’s mainstay supporters.

There can be nothing more gratifying than giving a gift from the heart and then seeing it pay back beyond your expectations. The investment of James Dick and many others over the years got a huge return on investment as Taber Gable gave back through his performance. July 9 was one of those magical nights—a night for remembering those who mentored us, a night for being with very special friends, a night to meet new friends and anticipate the fun of future gatherings with them, and a time to celebrate the JOY of MUSIC!

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Living and Giving Large

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Think you didn’t know Jeff Breazeale? Take one look at any picture of him, and think again. Everything you need to know is written in that infectious grin, that sometimes crazy silver hair, and those smiling eyes. Here was a man who always appeared to be on the cusp of a great joke, just waiting for an opening.

A giant presence (literally, at 6’3”) with a larger-than-life personality, it’s almost unimaginable he’s no longer here. Jeff died in June, three weeks after a car accident.

A lifelong musician, Jeff played with a number of bands in Texas and Tennessee before settling into regional success with the Dixie Werewolves. Along with his wife, Lisa, he also owned the Maryville live music hangout/bar Two Doors Down.

It wasn’t long after Jeff’s passing that Lisa realized she wanted to do something to honor the man she knew as her soulmate. “As soon as I started asking around, the Joy of Music School’s name kept coming up,” she says. “The School’s reputation is amazing, and I know that Jeff would be thrilled to help kids learn to play music. Especially the kids who live in this part of the world he loved so much.”

The woman known as “Momma” to most decided the best way to honor her musician is to ensure that there will be more like Jeff in the years to come. She’s doing this with a $50,000 gift, to be given to the school over the next five years.

A friend to everyone, Jeff left such a giant space behind. It seems only fitting that it will be filled with the music of children. The School humbly joins the long list of people who have benefited from Lisa and Jeff’s generosity. Here’s hoping they will carry his “live big” spirit, and become the Jeff Breazeales of future generations.

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How You Can Help

  • Donate a jewelry piece or a bottle of fine wine or a week at your vacation home to our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits auction.
  • Buy a mic stand for the studio ($20).
  • Give us your digits: We need help with data entry.
  • Help us reach the HR person at your company so we can recruit volunteer teachers.
  • Plan on doing your holiday shopping at Holiday Sparkles & Spirits on December 8.
  • “Like” or repost our social media efforts. It multiplies our reach!
  • Our building needs new HVAC units. Would you like to donate one?
  • Does your company or family pick a charity to support every year? How about the Joy of Music School?


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Our Students in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra

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Five current Joy of Music School students are bringing their talents to the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association, a highly selective group of the area’s top young musicians. Two of them, violinists Weston and Alex, recently won placement in the KSYO’s Chamber Orchestra, the second-highest level within the group. (Only the Youth Orchestra is higher.) They are the first JoMS students to reach the Chamber Orchestra. Maya, another violinist, recently won her first placement in the Preludium Orchestra while violinist Kimber and cellist Autumn are participating in the Philharmonium Orchestra. Congrats to all! The KSYO performs regularly at the Tennessee Theatre. You should come see for yourself how talented they are!

weston_thames


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The Great Piano Move

The story of how we got our newest piano is one with more twists and turns than a Chopin prelude. But thanks to the generosity of Reg and Mary Hodges and Richard Cadmus, it has a very happy ending.

The tale began when the Hodges came to visit our School in 2012, en route from Kentucky to their future retirement home in Florida. They had heard about us on The Secret Millionaire, an ABC-TV show featuring the Joy of Music School several years ago. Reg and Mary had a beautiful 1985 Baldwin baby grand that they wanted to donate when they moved full-time to Florida. We were so grateful! Only problem was, it was 500 miles away. How would we get it to our School for our students?

Executive Director Frank Graffeo did a lot of research and figured the best price he could get was $700 to ship the piano to Nashville. From there, former JoMS Board Member Brandon Herrenbruck generously offered to bring it to Knoxville for free. Still, that was $700 we didn’t exactly have lying around.

By spring 2015, the clock was ticking. With the Hodges about to move from their Kentucky home for good, Frank knew he had to make a decision about the piano. And that’s when Lenoir City resident Richard Cadmus appeared seemingly out of nowhere, popping his head in and having a look around our School one afternoon in May. Richard works in “the piano business,” he said. Impressed by what he saw during a tour of the School, he offered to help us tune, repair and even move our instruments.

Frank’s heart leaped. “Did you say ‘move’?” he asked. “Are you talking local moves or would you help us move a piano from Kentucky?” Richard said he’d be glad to do it, free of charge.

The Hodges’ piano arrived in Knoxville July 10, the day after Taber Gable’s benefit concert. A big Joy of Music School THANK YOU to Reg and Mary Hodges and Richard Cadmus!hodges_pianoClick here go to to the top post.


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In Tune with a Legacy

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When Joy of Music School volunteer Josh Gaither arrived at his mentor’s workshop one grey afternoon in 2013, he knew it would be no ordinary meeting. The man awaiting him, Knoxville’s venerated, prolific piano tuner Frank Hambright, was 89 years old and his health was failing.

As they sat down together, Frank told Josh how proud he was of his star student. Then, without fanfare, Frank handed him his worn bag of tuning tools. “Keep them,” he told the young man. “These are yours.”

A few weeks later, Frank passed away at age 90.

Josh and pianos go way back. He was a precocious child, already playing piano at age three. Later on he took up guitar, drums, saxophone and bass, and played plenty of rock band gigs. But his connection to piano was special.

After high school, Josh worked in restaurants to make ends meet while playing music. At 24, he enlisted in the Army and served two tours of duty in Iraq. When he returned home, he studied music at Pellissippi State Community College under Tom Johnson. While Johnson noted that Josh “was an excellent piano and saxophone player,” he recognized Josh’s special gift at the keyboard. Josh remembers that Johnson “steered me back to the piano, and toward jazz.”

Taking Tom’s advice, Josh went on to study jazz piano at University of Tennessee with Donald Brown. Late in his time at UT, Josh learned that the Joy of Music School needed volunteer teachers. So he applied, saying he wanted to “give back to the community, and I already loved working with kids.”

It was around this time that Josh met Frank Hambright, who had been tuning the School’s pianos for about a decade, and began to work with him. The inspiration of his mentor and his own keen interest in the piano as an instrument pushed him to pursue piano tuning and technology as a second career. With encouragement and support from Frank, Josh finally realized his dream and started Volunteer Piano, where he tunes, repairs, and rebuilds pianos for a living.

After Frank’s passing, Josh got so busy with his business that he had to stop teaching piano as a volunteer. So nowadays he devotes his time at the Joy of Music School to tuning and maintaining the pianos—a wonderful way to keep his mentor’s legacy alive.


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See You at Cherokee Country Club!

The 2015 version of Holiday Sparkles & Spirits, our annual fundraiser party, is shaping up to be the biggest and most festive yet. It’ll have all the elements that make HS&S one of Knoxville’s most inspiring evenings, plus the event is so jam-packed with goodness we’re moving it to the Cherokee Country Club ballroom. The evening, Dec. 8, will feature heart-warming performances by Joy of Music School students and a dazzling array of gift ideas in our live and silent auctions. Out-of- this-world wines! Beautiful jewelry! A wild game dinner! An Italian dinner! A condo in Vail Valley! Your ticket price of $100 includes delicious heavy hors d’oeuvres and wine and, of course, goes to support the Joy of Music School. Please call the School at 865-525-6806 to reserve your spot now!

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