Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Monthly Archives: April 2016


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It’s Recital Time in Tennessee!

JoMs_recital_kids

The Joy of Music School’s Spring Recital has a new home. This year, all the fun and excitement take place at the Scottish Rite Temple, right across from the University of Tennessee campus at 612 16th Street.

Save the date: Saturday, May 7, from 2- 4 p.m.  The Scottish Rite Temple is “a great venue,” says Julie Carter, the Joy of Music School’s Director of Music Education. “There’s a really big auditorium with plenty of seating for the audience, and there is lots of space on the floor and the stage for performances.”

Our annual recital is a truly special event. Roughly 65 of our students will climb up on that stage to show their families and friends what they’ve accomplished—musically and personally—this year. There will be singers, pianists, guitarists, drummers, and all manner of brass and string performances. There will be jangly nerves — and great big smiles of satisfaction and pride.

The event is free of charge for all. Be sure to stick around afterward for a warm and celebratory reception in the temple’s fellowship hall.

We are most grateful to the Scottish Rite Temple for letting us use their beautiful performance space, and to Knoxville’s HomeTrust Bank for sponsoring this important and fun event!


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From Ebay with Love

Pat White

Pat White

Like many (if not most) guitarists, Pat White is a devoted collector. When he sees a really cool guitar, especially one that needs repair, he can’t help himself. He has to have it.

But Pat doesn’t hang onto these beautiful objects forever. Once he brings them back to life, he often donates them to the Joy of Music School.

We have received a dozen restored guitars from Pat in the past two years, a haul that would be worth something like $9,000 if we’d had to buy them.

“Pat has made such a difference in our guitar program,” says JoMS Executive Director Frank Graffeo. “Our kids’ eyes just light up when they see his beautiful handiwork on these amazing guitars.”

Pat buys his instruments on eBay and repairs them in his Knoxville basement. He has 13 guitar stands. So when he gets to 13 guitars, he knows it’s “time to cull the herd” to make room for new ones. That time is now. “I’ve got four here that I’m about to bring over the School,” he says.

A former distribution manager for UPS, Pat took up guitar when he retired nine years go. The bug bit him hard. “I get so excited when I see a new guitar,” he explains. “There’s something about the inherent beauty of a guitar’s design. How it feels to hold it. How it sounds.”

Happily for our students, those are feelings Pat is determined to share.


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Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

Our volunteer teachers do the bulk of the weekly work here. Our staff also works hard, making sure everything is in place for the teachers and students. But there is another group of workers who don’t always get the spotlight—our board members. They do amazing and sometimes unexpected things to keep this organization operating at its best and growing for the future. A few examples: Professional writer and editor Pete Finch has been the anonymous editor of this newsletter for many years. Cindi Alpert donates air time and production work at her radio station. Susan Brackney gives hundreds of hours a year to our holiday fundraiser event. Many members are, or have been, volunteer teachers. We get legal advice from attorney Rick Carl. Mike Combs, founding board president, is a master organizer and motivator, giving countless hours to many initiatives. Tim Purcell connects us to the corporate world, and tackles problems with his ingenuity and hard work. Treasurer Lisa Price Scott, CPA, oversees our financial work. Bank president Trey Coleman helps with strategy and financial decision-making. These wonderful people, and many more unmentioned here, bind the School to the community. They strengthen existing bonds and reach out to form new ones. They conduct meetings, set policies, oversee, plan, protect, and care for the Joy of Music School. They attend recitals and applaud our kids like they would their own. They write checks. They find donated goods and services. They set an example and ask nothing in return. For all of that, they have our gratitude!

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director


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Thanks Béla and Abigail!

Bela_Frank_Abigail

Béla Fleck, Francis Graffeo, and Abigail Washburn

World-class banjo virtuosos Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn are touring the U.S., performing for packed houses from coast to coast. Weeks before their Feb. 20 show at Knoxville’s Bijou Theatre, their tour staff reached out to the Joy of Music School to see if we’d like the net proceeds from the lobby merchandise sales of t-shirts, CDs, DVDs, et al. We gladly accepted their kind offer!

Béla, who in 2008 traveled to Africa to trace the banjo’s roots and create the award-winning documentary Throw Down Your Heart, went a step further. To boost merchandise sales (and their donations to our School), he announced from the stage that every merch buyer would get a raffle ticket in a drawing for an autographed banjo. It worked. At intermission, the audience lined up 30-deep in the Bijou lobby! We are honored and ever grateful to Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, whose generosity netted the School nearly $2,200!


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‘Broadcasting Live from … the Bank Lobby?’

Frank at the bank

Knoxville’s HomeTrust Bank recently turned 90 and celebrated with a bustling party in its normally quiet, professional lobby. Joy of Music School Executive Director Frank Graffeo attended — and got to join a live WNML Sports Radio broadcast from the bank. Frank talked about his love of the Dallas Cowboys, and about the School, of course. The party also featured cornhole, drawings, prizes, pizza, cake, refreshments, and other things you might never expect in a bank lobby. HomeTrust Bank is the sponsor of the Joy of Music School Spring Recital (see article on page 1). Many thanks to JoMS board member and former volunteer guitar teacher Trey Coleman, president of the bank!

 

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Our Friend Emily Spreads the Joy

Emily

Fifth grader Emily Ford is a little kid with a big heart. As she was getting ready for her 10th birthday in November, she decided to do something different from the usual celebration. “I thought, ‘I don’t really need any more presents,’ ” Emily says. She encouraged her friends to make donations to the Joy of Music School rather than bring gifts to her party.

This wasn’t the first time Emily has been helpful to the School. She pitched in at our last two spring cleaning days along with her mother, Rachel Ford, Executive Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and JoMS board member. Emily, who plays the piano and violin, liked what she saw that day. “I thought it was cool that the School had free lessons for kids that might not have the opportunity,” she says.

Well, we think it’s extra cool that she would introduce her friends and their families to our School—and encourage them to donate. Thanks Emily!


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The Art of Giving

Painting

Elizabeth and Cindi Alpert

Fancy yourself an expert painter? Well, good, because neither do we! But that isn’t stopping us from getting super excited about the upcoming Painting for Joy event.

This extremely fun evening, a fundraiser for the Joy of Music School, takes place May 5, from 6 – 8 p.m.

The venue is Painting with a Twist’s new location in Farragut: 11000 Kingston Pike, Suite 3, right behind Pittsburgh Paints.

The event is a guided painting class combined with delicious food and wine, wonderful music and a spirited, supportive crowd. Even if you don’t know the first thing about painting, on this evening you will create a masterpiece that you will be proud to take home. Honestly!

Seats costs $35 per person, $25 of which goes to the Joy of Music School.

The evening is the brainchild of Cindi Alpert, JoMS board member and owner of radio station 106.1 FM The River. She suggests you reserve your tickets soon because seats are selling fast! Go to http://www.paintingwithatwist.com/knoxville and click on “view full calendar.” Scroll down to May 5 and you’ll find a link that will take you to a reservation form.


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How You Can Help

  • Ask your musician friends if they’d like to volunteer as a music mentor.
  • Donate a DSLR camera and/ or Final Cut Pro editing suite to our Music Production and Engineering for Teens class. They’re ready to shoot and edit music videos!
  • Sponsor or host a house party to benefit the School.
  • Come to our spring recital May 7. The kids need applause.
  • Volunteer to help serve food at the post-recital meal.
  • Check out our list of sponsors and thank them for their support.


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Be Like Ross!

Ross Dempster

Ross Dempster

The owner of Dempster Poured Foundations, Ross Dempster, heard our building needed a major foundation repair. Without hesitation he offered to fix the problem, which included digging a 100-foot trench along the building, waterproofing, installing a French drain and backfilling with gravel. It was a big project donated by a generous individual!

 

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Tag – You’re it!

TN_specialty_plates

Here’s a cool gift for those hard-to-shop-for people in your life: a Tennessee specialty license plate. “Gift-a-Tag” vouchers are now available for $35. The recipient can pick his or her own plate and personalize it. A healthy portion of all specialty plate fees benefit the Tennessee Arts Commission, which issues grants supporting important organizations (including the Joy of Music School!) throughout the state.

Go to tnspecialtyplates.org to learn more and support the arts!


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We’re So Glad He’s Back

Rick Carl

Rick Carl

This year we got a new board president, but he’s not brand new. You might say he is renewed.

Rick Carl, a former Webb School music director-turned-lawyer, joined our board in 2002 and ascended to the presidency in 2006. But the next year, Rick’s wife, Lynn, an attorney and Knoxville Symphony Orchestra violinist, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Rick stepped off our board to tend to her. Sadly, she died in 2009, leaving Rick alone to raise their son, Rick Jr., then 12. We all grieved with our friend as his son played a piano composition entitled “He’s My Son” at her memorial.

But the world carries on, and Rick’s life took another turn when he married Joanna, a friend from 35 years earlier at Maryville College, where he was a music major. She is a sparkling presence in his life, and an extraordinary classically trained pianist as well. Rick Jr., a gifted musician, now attends the University of Rochester, and Rick has returned to the Joy of Music School. Once back on the board, he was unanimously elected president. We welcome back our not-so-brand-new president, and dear old friend, with open arms.


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‘Blossoming’ Thanks to Music

Eriana

Eriana

Eriana was a shy, sometimes withdrawn sort of kid—until she started attending the Joy of Music School. That’s how her grandmother Norma recalls it. “She’s just blossomed since starting there,” says Norma. “She’s not self-conscious at all.”

Eriana, who is 10, remembers it the same way. “I was quiet,” she says. “But you make friends, and you learn about music, and you don’t feel like being so quiet anymore.”

Her first exposure to the School came four years ago, when Eriana enrolled in General Music, a group class taught by Joe Jordan. “It was really cool,” she says. “He (Joe Jordan) was really nice.”

In 2014 she started taking piano lessons from our Executive Director, Frank Graffeo, an experience she calls “fabulous.” She explains: “I got so hooked by it. It’s just so fun, and you get to learn new things, and it sounds so pretty.”

Eriana practices the piano every day, her grandmother reports. “She doesn’t even have to be told. And she begs to go to the recital.” Her favorite pieces at the moment are Für Else and Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

Her next goal: to take singing lessons. Which, when you consider how shy she was just two years ago, is pretty remarkable. Says her grandmother: “I couldn’t be happier about the Joy of Music School.”