Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Monthly Archives: May 2018


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The Joy of Performing

Some say Bonnaroo is the pinnacle of musical excitement in these parts. For others it’s the Rossini Festival. Or Big Ears. Or the Pride of the Southland Marching Band.

For one group of kids and their loved ones, it’s hard to beat the thrill of our annual recital.

Come see (and hear) for yourself on Saturday, May 5 at the Scottish Rite Temple in Knoxville. It runs from 2-4 p.m. Pop in for a little or a lot!

Around 65 Joy of Music School students will get up and perform, says Director of Music Education Julie Carter. They’ll be singing and playing practically any instrument you can imagine: piano, guitar, ukulele, violin, cello, saxophone, and more.

This is their big moment to shine. And for attendees, it’s a perfect opportunity to see how much good our School is accomplishing.

Plus! There’s a reception immediately following the recital, with delicious BBQ generously donated (and lovingly prepared) by Renee Sunday and her brother, David Beard.

The Scottish Rite Temple is at 612 16th Street. There’s ample free parking behind it. Turn onto White Ave. and follow the signs to the UT parking garage.

 

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Mark Your Calendar

Here are a couple of other important upcoming Joy of Music School events you should know about.

Painting for Joy

Tuesday, May 22, 6-8 p.m., Painting with a Twist in Farragut

Bring out your inner artist and support the School. Tickets are $35 and include paints, canvas, instruction, refreshments and raffles. Plus you get to take home your masterpiece.

Swing for Joy 2nd Annual Golf Tournament

Monday, Aug. 27, 9 a.m., Gettysvue Polo, Golf & Country Club

Cost is $100 per player and includes raffles, putting contest, goodie bags, prizes (hole in one wins a Mercedes Benz lease). Sponsorship opportunities available for area businesses.

 

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A Donor That Really Gets It

CMA Grants Associate Falon Keith
and Frank Graffeo.

“I have never had a more in-depth conversation with a foundation representative,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo, referring to a fruitful meeting in his office with Tiffany Kerns, Director of Community Outreach for the Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation last fall. “They don’t simply write checks. They direct their funding, time, and energy into specific areas of the School and focus on how, and how much, their support helps.”

The grant we got from the CMA Foundation—a generous $20,000—is designed to help us do a handful of important things, like getting better at measuring the positive effects of our program on the lives of the kids we serve. These include the relationship between kids’ study here and their attendance rates in Knox County Schools. The Foundation money is also helping us get a program for our alumni off the ground. It’s clear the CMA Foundation wants to help us set goals, meet them, and provide the extra resources required to achieve them. That’s a foundation providing foundational support.

 

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Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

I’m teaching a convivial, very talented, 17-yearold singer. Before we met, I was “warned” that he is engaging, has a beautiful voice, but that he also had one frustrating aspect: He does not want to sing in public. If you heard him, you would likely react the way others have. They say, “He’s so wonderful but he’s wasting his talent” and “How can he have so much to offer but not share it?” I’ll admit I had a similar thought before meeting him. I imagined that getting him into the spotlight might be a “project” for me.

But when we finally met, and as our conversation turned to his reluctance, I had a weird experience. Instead of telling him we could find a way to take the first steps out of the wings, the words that came out of my mouth almost shocked me. I told him, “I play the piano almost every day and I shudder at the idea of playing in public.” I definitely did not plan on saying that! What was I thinking? But it’s true. As a conductor, I’ve led hundreds of public performances, no problem. But sitting alone at a keyboard with an audience is a scary thought. I love playing the piano, just at home with my wife and son. I make big fat errors. I play too loudly. Do that in public? No thanks. The fact is, I didn’t realize my student and I shared a genuine basic trait until he gave me the chance to say it out loud.

Music schools have to give recitals, right? We encourage our charges to step up and face the challenge. It’s important. Mostly. Yet there’s something to be said for those who prefer playing or singing for themselves, or their loved ones. The teacher/performer/mentor in me hopes my student will get the courage to step forward and bring all of us to tears with his beautiful voice. But music is also an authentic personal experience. Having a finely honed skill inside oneself is affirming and foundational. The rewards are both public and private.

My student knows he can sing. He wants to get better at it. That’s why he’s here. But he might not take it to the world. If he declines a recital, that’s his business. I will give him all the encouragement I can, and it’s up to him to do with his talent what he wants. While some might think that’s a shame, it’s no reason for shame. It’s legitimate.

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director

 

 

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Big Ears, Big Fun

The annual Big Ears music festival bring so much to East Tennessee—and to our School. For the last few years, we’ve been part of the world-renowned festival through its Little Ears program, which provides an opportunity for our students and kids at the Community School of the Arts to engage, witness, cheer and be involved.

Our students Jacob and Joseph even got to perform at the event’s opening ceremony at the Knoxville Visitors Center this year!

The School has also proudly offered up our space for rehearsals. In March we were delighted to welcome the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, and percussionist Ches Smith, who performed at Big Ears with legendary guitarist Marc Ribot.

 

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Band of Brothers

Joseph and Jacob

Joseph and Jacob are brothers who perform together, and they do all those things brothers do. “There’s a lot of arguing, a lot of sidetracking,” Joseph says with a laugh. “Whenever we have a deadline, it’s always last-minute. It’s a little crazy.”

But when show time comes, you’d never guess it. They’re poised and polished. This spring they helped kick off the celebrated Big Ears music festival by performing at the opening ceremony. You can see them firsthand at our recital on May 5 at the Scottish Rite Temple.

The Joy of Music School has been lucky to have them both as students for years. Joseph, now 17 and a senior at Bearden High School, started with piano lessons in second grade. Jacob, 16 and a home-schooled sophomore, began a year later with guitar lessons.

These days Joseph mainly sings. His mother, Dawn, remembers how Joseph tip-toed into his early voice lessons. “He was OK with it as long as he didn’t have to sing in public. It’s kind of ironic at this point. He lives for it now.”

When they’re playing together, Jacob typically sings backup and accompanies his brother on guitar. Or ukulele, or mandolin, or banjo. These days he’s comfortable on just about anything with strings. “Most parents use cell phones as leverage,” says Dawn, “but for me it’s guitars. He knows he’s not allowed to do his homework in his room, because he’ll just pick up one of his guitars…”

The brothers enjoy many musical styles, from show tunes to pop to Southern country gospel. Lately Jacob’s been writing some of his own songs. So what’ll they be playing together at this year’s recital? That’s a “government-security- level secret,” says Joseph.

Is that code for “we’re arguing over what to play”? No, no. They’re just planning it as a surprise for their JoMS instructor, Ashley Costerisan.

 

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Introducing Our New Board Members

Every year we welcome new members onto our board of directors. In 2018 they include Fay Adams, Harold Duckett, Marsha Hollingsworth, Dametraus Jaggers, and Joyce Thames. Welcome!

We also are happy to greet board members returning to their roles after sitting out a year or more. They are Trey Coleman and Harold Black. Welcome back!

 

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Russ Moves On

It’s been our great fortune to have Russ Fuquay as the School’s Business Manager for the past 10 years, but he’s crunched the numbers in the big spreadsheet of life and decided it’s time to move on.

Russ and his wife, Holly, own a thriving Knoxville business called Nonprofit Bookkeeping & Consulting. It’s doing so well, they needed to hire somebody else or bring Russ onboard full-time. They chose the latter.

“Russ has been a dependable, intelligent, thoughtful employee who always managed to find ways to make what we do for kids and the community better,” says Frank Graffeo, our executive director. “His keen eye for fiscal savings, solid planning, and exemplary work ethic made him invaluable. We wish Holly and him nothing but the best as they pursue their venture together.”

Happily, this is less “good-bye” than “au revoir.” We’ll still see Russ at least once a week. An accomplished musician who’s comfortable playing any instrument with frets, he volunteers as a guitar teacher on Wednesday nights.

“The greatest thing about working at the School is watching these kids develop,” Russ explains. “For a lot of them, this will change their lives: just the fact of learning how to play and read music and to be part of something bigger than themselves.”

Thank you, Russ, for all you’ve done for the Joy of Music School!

 

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A Change for the Better

Our lobby is hopping on school days. While students are in getting their weekly music lessons, their parents and grandparents and siblings make themselves comfortable on our couches and chairs. There are snacks available for all, as well as books and toys for the kids. Parents with infants usually keep them on their laps and chat with each other.

But, if you’re a mom or a dad, you know that combining waiting and babies sometimes means little urgent needs must be met. So the School has placed baby changing stations in our restrooms so parents can deal with those minor emergencies without having to go out to their car, or improvise a quick-change on a restroom counter. We are grateful to Grainger Industrial Supply for donating Rubbermaid wall-mounted units to solve the problem. We want our families to feel welcomed and comfortable. That certainly includes the littlest ones.

 

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A Grand Use for One of Our Pianos

“Excuse me, what did you say?” asked a wide-eyed Jane Tolhurst. She had approached our executive director to begin what she assumed would be a long and potentially expensive hunt for a piano to place in the lobby of Maryville’s non-profit Blount Memorial Hospital.

“I said, ‘Would you like a piano?’ ” responded Frank Graffeo. “I have one I need to store for an indefinite length of time.”

The answer was a resounding “Yes!” and now a piano belonging to the Joy of Music School has a happy home at Blount Memorial, where volunteer pianists regularly play to lighten the mood of patients and visitors.

The idea for the piano at the hospital dates to last summer, when Blount Memorial board member Carolyn Forster thought it up. She and Connie Huffman, assistant administrator and director of the Blount Memorial Hospital Foundation, approached Jane Tolhurst, who has been involved for many years with musical programming, planning and fundraising in the community. When Jane later found herself talking with Frank, the idea got legs.

Donors often give us pianos, some of which we lend to families of our students when it’s practical. But this one, previously on loan to the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, was a grand piano. School policy dictates we can only use grand pianos in our building or in a public setting.

A generous donor from the Blount community stepped forward to start a fund to pay for the piano’s needs during its stay, so just like that, there was money to pay for the moving expenses, a lock for the keyboard, a cover to keep the piano dust-free, and stanchions with black velvet roping to keep the piano even safer. There was even enough money left over to have the piano tuned twice a year.

Everyone who walks by now sees a sign explaining that the lovely piano was lent by the Joy of Music School to help further community appreciation and enjoyment of music.

It’s our great pleasure to help out!

 

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Get the Message: We Need New Strings!

Everyone’s obsession with their smartphones, the proverbial “black mirror,” is a bit much at times, but lately the devices have been music to our ears.

With a lot of help from U.S. Cellular and the Mobile Giving Foundation, we recently raised money for string replacement by asking folks to text “JOM” to a certain phone number. A lot of you did, and we’re grateful for that.

On all of the instruments we have out on loan to our kids there are 278 individual strings. That’s violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, ukulele, electric guitar, electric bass. They get plucked, bowed, strummed, and whammied (yes, that’s a thing). Under that abuse, strings wear out and need replacing. Our goal was to raise $2,780, enough to buy fresh new strings for all our kids by their Spring Recital on May 5.

Despite the great public response, we didn’t quite hit our goal (we aim high). But imagine our surprise and delight when a group of students from a UT English class taught by Beth Meredith swooped in to make up the difference. How? They wrote a call to action, a media release, and scripted and shot a promo video aimed at raising the remaining funds needed for our “Strings for Spring” program. They posted everything on Indiegogo.com, a crowdfunding site. It’s in progress now, and it’s off to a good start. Find it at goo.gl/qtNx1a.

And, yes, you can view it on that shiny black screen in your pocket.

 

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