Breyon Ewing
Joy of Music School alumnus Breyon Ewing, who attended the University of Tennessee on a music scholarship, now works as a professional singer and music instructor—and that includes teaching piano with us! As the School celebrates its 20th anniversary, Breyon shared his thoughts on what JoMS has meant to him.
Q. What are your earliest memories of the School?
A. When I first got there, in 2006, I was 11. I was taking piano. I’d would come in and have lessons with Linda Wise. She was very nice. I’d see [Executive Director] Frank Graffeo. And [Director of Music] Julie Carter a whole bunch. I had no idea important she’d be, how integral she’d be to my growing up. I just thought I was taking lessons.
Q. Does anything you learned at the School – big or small – stand out as being most memorable?
A. I guess it was the first time that I ever bowed and accepted applause. [Laughs.] Before coming there I’d been in choirs, and sung solos with them, but you don’t bow after that. But in recitals, which I always loved to play in, they were like, “All right and now you bow,” and I was like, “Oh…cool. That’s… interesting!”
Q. Do you ever think about how your life would be different if you hadn’t found the School?
A. Oh yeah! I don’t even know which career path I’d be taking. In high school, I started taking voice lessons with [well-known tenor and UT associate professor] Andrew Skoog at the Joy of Music. And he was like, “You know, you could do this as a career…”
Q. Looking back, what do you know now that you wish you’d known as a Joy of Music School student?
A. When it comes to your voice and your art, you have to be diligent. That time you’re not practicing is not going to behoove you later.
Q. What’s it like to come back to the School as a teacher?
A. It’s so interesting. Sometimes it’s kind of surreal. I see pictures of myself as a younger person and … wow. They’ve done remodels and nice things to make it look even better, but it’s still the same place with the same people. Everybody’s working so hard and putting in all this effort, and I feel more a part of it now that I can contribute as a volunteer teacher.
One of our newest and most enthusiastic piano students is Nazaria, who is in the second grade at Emerald Academy. She started taking lessons with volunteer teacher Ashley Williams this fall after spending forever on our waiting list. Well, it wasn’t actually forever. It was only about six months. But that sure seems like forever when you are 7 years old and want to start learning piano SO BAD. Nazaria’s mom, NyKeesha, did a great job of managing our application process. NyKeesha first reached out to us when Nazaria was just 5 years old. We told her the earliest a student can start oneon- one lessons is 7. So NyKeesha waited patiently and when Nazaria turned 7, her mom applied for lessons. We put her on the waiting list last April.
Do you like this newsletter as much as I do? To me, it has a unique combination of qualities one doesn’t commonly find together, like a mythical food that’s very tasty and yet very good for you. Imagine a sweet, gooey, delicious Cinnabon roll that somehow lowers your cholesterol and gives you six-pack abs. That’s how I see this quarterly. It’s full of stories that are fun and
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,” sang the Beatles. Our Executive Director Frank Graffeo found himself humming that tune recently, thanks to some help he got from our good friend Jonah Rabinowitz at the W. O. Smith Music School in Nashville.
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.
Chloe and Caleb are twins, aged 17. She’s a drummer. He plays bass. They are the first JoMS kids to attend the Berklee College of Music’s Five-Week Summer Experience, an international gathering of young people to make music and develop talent in Boston. The pair auditioned via video, and were awarded tuition scholarships totaling $11,000. Room, board, and travel were covered jointly by the Youth Endowment Fund of the East Tennessee Foundation, and JoMS donors. Chloe texted, “I am in three rock ensembles where I learn songs over the five weeks for our final performances. I have become close friends with another drummer from California and we have been exploring Boston in our free time.”
Joy of Music School 