Bart McFadden visited the Joy of Music School not long ago and was impressed by what he saw.

We’re especially happy about that because Bart is the new president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley, an organization that’s near to our hearts.

The Joy of Music School—which was founded in a Boys & Girls Club building!—teaches several music classes at two Knoxville Boys & Girls Club sites and a Boys & Girls Club program at Dogwood Elementary School. The classes are led by Will Carter and Anthony Hussey, and they include introduction to music, hand drumming and the basic elements of music.

Julie Carter, our director of music education, says we teach music to more than 150 kids affiliated with Boys & Girls Clubs.

Our total outreach program, which includes choir director Jessie Compton and brings lessons to a few other after-school venues, reaches hundreds children annually.

“Having a music experience is just so important,” says Bart, whose mother taught music at a Boys & Girls Club when he was growing up in Johnson City. “You just never know when you’re going to find a kid who has a real talent for it. It can catapult them to successes they never could have imagined.”

We couldn’t agree more.

 

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