Not all music is meant to be tuneful, hummable, or foot-tapping. Just listen to an adventure movie score, or the music behind a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Like creators of visual art, poetry, and dance, different musicians embrace different styles. A local ensemble with a national reputation embodies that notion. They even named themselves after the sounds we use to describe audio oddities. Eschewing bleep-blop, they chose Nief- Norf, and they celebrate experimental music.
Nief-Norf interacts with JoMS kids every year in a program they call Norf Speak, an interactive performance-workshop that involves young people in creating non-traditional music. In June they were at the School and, wow, was it eye-and ear-opening! Five Nief-Norfers introduced students and families to unusual contemporary music and modern notation techniques.
Our students then composed their own music, which the adults then played for everyone. The result? Bleeping and blopping dominated the day. Creativity without so many rules was the objective. That appealed to a lot of kids who otherwise might have been stymied by the stringent rules of standard music composition. The JoMS motto was in full force at Norf Speak. “Because inspiration should be free.” Mission accomplished.
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Remember 1998? The Tennessee Vols were college football’s national champs. E.R. was TV’s top-rated show. The search engine Google made its official debut.
This year we celebrate two very special volunteer teachers whose service as mentors and instructors cross important anniversaries. Charles Parham has been teaching piano at JoMS for 10 years. He has also accompanied countless JoMS students on piano in numerous performances. Also, celebrating 15 years as a dedicated volunteer teacher is Maurie Douglas, an individual who started teaching at JoMS at the tender age of 18! We are ever grateful to these fine people.
Joy of Music School 