Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Category Archives: Giving


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A Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

A friend gave me 50-yard-line tickets for a University of Tennessee Vols game last season and I was absolutely inspired … by the band! Wow! It was a thrilling sound from there—one you don’t get in the cheap seats. The game was good, too. We won (I think). The friend who gave me the football tickets didn’t expect I’d be more inspired by the Pride of the Southland Band than the football game—and neither did I. But that’s how it happened.

The children and teens at the Joy of Music School are no different from any of us when it comes to being inspired. We are all primed for it. It happens in expected, and unexpected ways. When we provide lessons, guidance and performance opportunities to our students here, we realize inspiration can happen in any situation we create for them, but we can never predict the exact moment. It might be when a teacher demonstrates a passage, or when a fellow student nails her solo, or when we provide a family tickets to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, or when a student surprises even himself in a lesson. Kids from fortunate families can pay for all sorts of inspiring experiences. But in the eyes of the Joy of Music School, these experiences should be available to every young person who loves music. Why? Our motto says it all: “Because Inspiration Should Be Free.”

Will you help us keep inspiring our students? Every dollar you donate to the Joy of Music School helps put fresh strings on heavily used violins, replace worn-out guitar cases, buy a crisp new method book for a child’s first piano lesson, and more. A fundraising letter will arrive in your mailbox soon. Please help keep the inspiration free.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director


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Living and Giving Large

lisa_jeff_breazale

Think you didn’t know Jeff Breazeale? Take one look at any picture of him, and think again. Everything you need to know is written in that infectious grin, that sometimes crazy silver hair, and those smiling eyes. Here was a man who always appeared to be on the cusp of a great joke, just waiting for an opening.

A giant presence (literally, at 6’3”) with a larger-than-life personality, it’s almost unimaginable he’s no longer here. Jeff died in June, three weeks after a car accident.

A lifelong musician, Jeff played with a number of bands in Texas and Tennessee before settling into regional success with the Dixie Werewolves. Along with his wife, Lisa, he also owned the Maryville live music hangout/bar Two Doors Down.

It wasn’t long after Jeff’s passing that Lisa realized she wanted to do something to honor the man she knew as her soulmate. “As soon as I started asking around, the Joy of Music School’s name kept coming up,” she says. “The School’s reputation is amazing, and I know that Jeff would be thrilled to help kids learn to play music. Especially the kids who live in this part of the world he loved so much.”

The woman known as “Momma” to most decided the best way to honor her musician is to ensure that there will be more like Jeff in the years to come. She’s doing this with a $50,000 gift, to be given to the school over the next five years.

A friend to everyone, Jeff left such a giant space behind. It seems only fitting that it will be filled with the music of children. The School humbly joins the long list of people who have benefited from Lisa and Jeff’s generosity. Here’s hoping they will carry his “live big” spirit, and become the Jeff Breazeales of future generations.

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How You Can Help

  • Donate a jewelry piece or a bottle of fine wine or a week at your vacation home to our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits auction.
  • Buy a mic stand for the studio ($20).
  • Give us your digits: We need help with data entry.
  • Help us reach the HR person at your company so we can recruit volunteer teachers.
  • Plan on doing your holiday shopping at Holiday Sparkles & Spirits on December 8.
  • “Like” or repost our social media efforts. It multiplies our reach!
  • Our building needs new HVAC units. Would you like to donate one?
  • Does your company or family pick a charity to support every year? How about the Joy of Music School?


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The Great Piano Move

The story of how we got our newest piano is one with more twists and turns than a Chopin prelude. But thanks to the generosity of Reg and Mary Hodges and Richard Cadmus, it has a very happy ending.

The tale began when the Hodges came to visit our School in 2012, en route from Kentucky to their future retirement home in Florida. They had heard about us on The Secret Millionaire, an ABC-TV show featuring the Joy of Music School several years ago. Reg and Mary had a beautiful 1985 Baldwin baby grand that they wanted to donate when they moved full-time to Florida. We were so grateful! Only problem was, it was 500 miles away. How would we get it to our School for our students?

Executive Director Frank Graffeo did a lot of research and figured the best price he could get was $700 to ship the piano to Nashville. From there, former JoMS Board Member Brandon Herrenbruck generously offered to bring it to Knoxville for free. Still, that was $700 we didn’t exactly have lying around.

By spring 2015, the clock was ticking. With the Hodges about to move from their Kentucky home for good, Frank knew he had to make a decision about the piano. And that’s when Lenoir City resident Richard Cadmus appeared seemingly out of nowhere, popping his head in and having a look around our School one afternoon in May. Richard works in “the piano business,” he said. Impressed by what he saw during a tour of the School, he offered to help us tune, repair and even move our instruments.

Frank’s heart leaped. “Did you say ‘move’?” he asked. “Are you talking local moves or would you help us move a piano from Kentucky?” Richard said he’d be glad to do it, free of charge.

The Hodges’ piano arrived in Knoxville July 10, the day after Taber Gable’s benefit concert. A big Joy of Music School THANK YOU to Reg and Mary Hodges and Richard Cadmus!hodges_pianoClick here go to to the top post.


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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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See You at Cherokee Country Club!

The 2015 version of Holiday Sparkles & Spirits, our annual fundraiser party, is shaping up to be the biggest and most festive yet. It’ll have all the elements that make HS&S one of Knoxville’s most inspiring evenings, plus the event is so jam-packed with goodness we’re moving it to the Cherokee Country Club ballroom. The evening, Dec. 8, will feature heart-warming performances by Joy of Music School students and a dazzling array of gift ideas in our live and silent auctions. Out-of- this-world wines! Beautiful jewelry! A wild game dinner! An Italian dinner! A condo in Vail Valley! Your ticket price of $100 includes delicious heavy hors d’oeuvres and wine and, of course, goes to support the Joy of Music School. Please call the School at 865-525-6806 to reserve your spot now!

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Commence the Fugues and Inventions!

harpsicord

When Adrienne Dessel approached the School about donating a harpsichord, she didn’t realize we have never owned one. Frankly, we never gave it much thought. But now that it’s here we are thrilled to have the instrument for our kids, and the possibilities seem endless. The harpsichord is unique, instantly recognizable, and central to the development of keyboard music as an art. Any classical piano student has played Bach. But not so many have played Bach on the instrument for which much of his music was written! Now our piano students can, thanks to Adrienne, whose beautiful harpsichord was built—and painted—by her father, John Brodsky. Many thanks to them both!

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We Love Our Community!

One of the best parts of making Knoxville our home is the consistent love and support we get from local folks. Recently four groups have gone out of their way to raise money for the School, so here’s our chance to say thanks to them.

  • The International. In December, this nightclub hosted a special event with four heavy metal bands and 100 percent of the door proceeds benefited the School.
  • Scruffy City Hall. Event promoter Barry Garner presented the first “Rockin’ the Runway” event at the Market Square arts space in March. A fashion show with a rock and roll theme, it made a generous donation to the School.
  • West High School’s Music Theater Class. An April 22 event at the Standard has students performing a favorite song, with proceeds from the $5 tickets benefiting the Joy of Music School.
  • Painting with a Twist. Tickets to the studio’s second annual “Painting for Joy” event on April 28 cost $35, with a portion benefiting the School.

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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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Other Ways You Can Help

  • Pitch in on our Spring Recital on May 9. We need a truck, setup, ushers, kid wranglers, food servers, breakdown, and more.
  • “Follow” “Like” “Friend” “Plus One” us. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn and Instagram. • Share this newsletter with someone who doesn’t know us.
  • If you donate, please let us know if your company matches employee gifts.
  • Buy a $50 tuning hammer (wrench) for our new harpsichord
  • Have carpentry skills? Please fix our guitar storage shelf!
  • Underwrite guitar carrying bags for the kids ($40 each)
  • Shop at smile.amazon.com and select us as your charity. We get a donation equal to .5% of what you spend.

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