Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Category Archives: Advocacy


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A Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

Before electric light and fan-driven heat, we humans were forced indoors as daylight and warmth became scarce in December. Waiting it out for spring, we ate, drank and congregated in homes, clubs or places of worship. It was inevitable some of us would entertain and engage the others. That’s how many works of music have been created and performed. Before music was available at the push of a button, in countless candlelit rooms the musically talented ones would strike up a tune and unite everyone in a shared experience. Some danced. Some listened. Some sang along. Flickering shadows and resonant harmonies filled the gaps. Everyone was involved and perhaps drawn even closer together than the walls required.

As the holidays approach and we find ourselves drawn closer together by tradition, if not the cold, let’s take a moment and listen. These days music is everywhere. And you know you won’t see a musician every time you hear one. But when you do, please thank them, applaud them, toss a tip into their open case, and consider what that space might feel like, isolated by the dark outdoors, without the warmth of music and a musician.

Our December 8 Holiday Sparkles & Spirits event will have us all in a glittering room with darkness closing in from outside. You will indeed hear and see live musicians: young, eager, cheerful musicians trained by the teachers of this very special school. We sincerely hope their music will warm your spirits and add to your holidays, and bring you even closer together.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director


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How You Can Help

  • Read this newsletter. Then give it to someone else.
  • Spending time with loved ones this season? Tell them about the Joy of Music School!
  • Have everything already? Ask for donations to JoMS in lieu of holiday gifts.
  • Go to smile.amazon.com and name JoMS as your charity. Amazon gives a percentage of sales to our programs!
  • Bring your sweetheart to Holiday Sparkles & Spirits. Mwah!
  • Follow us on social media and share our news with your friends.


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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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In Tune with a Legacy

josh_gaither

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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A Round of Applause for our Recital Sponsor

hometrust

Along with proud family members, friends and teachers, the students performing at our May 9 recital will have the support of a new and welcomed sponsor this year: HomeTrust Bank.

HomeTrust has offices in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. It expanded into our state last year when it bought Jefferson National Bank.

“HomeTrust Bank is proud to support an important arts program like the Joy of Music School,” says Beth Kasper, the bank’s sales and marketing coordinator. “We are advocates for education, and skills learned through arts education produce creative problem solvers for our future. Instilling confidence, perseverance, and collaboration will help these students in every part of their lives, and arts education provides all of these.”

We are so grateful for HomeTrust’s support. Special thanks to JoMS board member Trey Coleman, a HomeTrust senior VP, who connected us.

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Letter From the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

Music is built on tradition and context, and so is its teaching. Recent events at the School have brought this into focus. We recently received a donated harpsichord with its Old World sound and its own place in history. Also, as I write this, the Silver Apples electronic duo is rehearsing in our building for their Big Ears Festival performance. I can hear them now. Silver Apples’ founder, Simeon Coxe, makes rock music with electronically generated sounds, produced by equipment he made himself back before people thought electronic sounds had any role in rock. In the context of rock and roll in the 1970s, this was unusual. Nowadays, electronic music is commonplace, even old hat. Yet, when I look at our harpsichord while I’m hearing Simeon’s synthesizer, electronic is definitely new music. That’s context—centuries of it.

The traditions in both musical modes trace their roots back to seminal creators. In the case of the harpsichord, it’s Antonio Scarlatti and J. S. Bach. In the case of electronic music in rock, it’s Simeon Coxe. In fact, he gave a delightful and informative presentation to our students about his music that gave the kids more context for what’s old and what’s new in music. This direct knowledge handoff is a prime example of tradition in music. Musical details must be passed on from person to person. That’s how it’s taught: a teacher, a student, and their music. The teacher helps the student understand context and passes on the traditions, giving depth to the student’s performing. Give a student a book and an instrument and turn him loose? You’re doing it wrong. When you add the teacher, then the music, the audience and the listener are transformed.

Sincerely,

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director

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Making Music, Supporting Music

Keith Brown

Knoxville jazz musician Keith Brown is well-known for his skills on the piano. He also deserves acclaim for his generosity of time and money. Keith came to the School one evening this winter with a couple of bandmates, playing a handful of tunes and chatting about music with a delighted group of students and parents. He is working on his second album, “The Journey”, which he hopes will appear this summer. To help raise money to record and produce the album, he turned to an outfit called PledgeMusic.com. Once he reached his fundraising goal, 10 percent of all the cash above that amount will be donated to the Joy of Music School.

Keith heard about the Joy of Music through Taber Gable, a friend and fellow jazz musician who took lessons here while growing up. “I just think it’s a great thing,” Keith says of the School. “It’s good to have them here.”

Our heartfelt thanks and best wishes for continued success to Keith Brown!

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