Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Category Archives: Staff


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How We Got With The Program

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.

Earlier this year Jonah showed Frank how to set up a new, super easy-to-use computerized data base for the Joy of Music School. The database, which uses the FileMaker Pro software program, is modeled on one Jonah has built at W.O. Smith over the past 20 years.

Finding a good program to consolidate and manage all our records has been a longtime struggle. “We continually met with roadblocks or malfunctions and couldn’t afford expensive computer coders and programmers to fix them,” says Frank.

“The problem with commercial database products is you get what they want you to track,” explains Jonah, who has
been executive director at W.O. Smith since 1995. “With our system, we can collect any kind of info we want.” For example: “Every teacher gets a roster of students,” says Jonah. “This program allows us with one stroke to look up that roster of students by name, what they worked on the previous semester, notes from previous teacher, and more.”

At a Berklee City Music Network function in Boston, Jonah showed Frank how he could access all of W.O. Smith’s data using FileMaker Pro – on his cell phone. “I was just blown away,” says Frank. Not long after, Jonah arrived for an afternoon in Knoxville to help the staff set up our own FileMaker Pro system.

Jonah describes himself as happy to help. “Anything that keeps Frank and his team away from their computer screens is a good thing,” he says. “We all spend way too much time doing paperwork.”

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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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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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Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo, Executive Director

One of the pillars of our existence is a practical matter—and it matters a lot: the destructive decline in public school music budgets. Schools all over are quietly dropping choirs, bands, or orchestras. In some schools they still exist but have been hobbled. Consider the time it takes a conductor and two assistants to simply tune a middle school orchestra’s instruments at the start of a 40-minute rehearsal. Then try it the following year with only one assistant. Then with no assistant. Sure, the orchestra still exists, but the conductor can’t keep up, and the kids lose.

Talent is withering as budgets wane. Want proof? Since the 1999-2000 school year, Knox County Schools has cut music budgets by 50.4 percent (adjusted to today’s dollars) while it has added around 9,000 students. Knox County residents below the poverty line—the families we serve—increased from 12.6 percent to 15.6 percent during the same period. Kids who have talent, work ethic and the need to develop themselves through the art and discipline of music are being left behind.

While beloved family philanthropists the Haslams made a remarkable gift this year in support of Knox County high school marching bands (thank you!!), they would surely agree there’s more to be done.

All of this motivates us to engage our community to serve our community. These are our kids. If we can’t convince the politicians, then let’s roll up our sleeves and make it happen here at the School, and in our outreach in the community. Give. Volunteer. Advocate. We’re an ensemble. Let’s play our parts!

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director

 

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Listening and Judging

Frank Graffeo (third from left) with fellow judges and singers
who advanced to Chicago.

The Voice may be popular, but it is “pure TV theater,” Frank Graffeo says with a laugh. “That is not the way bona fide singing competitions work.”

How would he know? Though Frank’s full-time job is leading the Joy of Music School as executive director, he has rich experience in the vocal arts, having conducted hundreds of opera performances professionally. He serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council, a program that identifies and assists promising young singers.

Over the years, Frank has rated and ranked singers from coast to coast. But never in Knoxville, he notes, because the Met doesn’t allow people to judge singers in their home regions.

Frank recently visited Indianapolis, where he heard 18 opera singers vying for slots in the regional Met finals in Chicago early in 2018. Regional winners advance to the finals at the Met in New York in April.

The experience of judging is both fulfilling and exciting, says Frank. “It’s rewarding to see young singers advance and eventually perform at the Met.”

Frank describes the audition process as “highly specific, idiomatic, and detailed,” adding: “The difference between winners and runners up is very hard to distinguish for most ears.” The competitions in primetime TV on the other hand are, “Well, let’s just say they are designed to make the competition itself entertaining. Met auditions focus on the performers, and not the judges. We aim to put the entertainment on the Met stage well after the competition is over.”

 

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Hey, Let’s Put On A Show!

Jessie Anne Compton

Jessie Anne with Tellico kids

Our fast-expanding outreach program reached a new stage this summer. Actually, it reached a few new stages.

Outreach teacher Jessie Compton directed productions of Disney: The Movies, the Music at Lenoir City Boys & Girls Club, Loudon Elementary School and here at the Joy of Music School.

She had kids singing, dancing and playing instruments in “The Mickey Mouse March,” “You Can Fly” (from Peter Pan), “The Bear Necessities” (from Jungle Book) and many more. For the big finale: “Circle of Life” from The Lion King.

The shows were a blast, and not just for the kids. The Loudon Elementary show had around 200 attendees, including an enthusiastic bunch from the Tellico Village Baptist Church, who had been volunteering in rehearsals.

Jessie first came to the School while an undergrad at UT. She got her Master’s in music education last December. This fall, she began a new job as music teacher at Knox County’s Northshore Elementary. She’ll also continue to help with our outreach programs.

Bravo, Jessie! You’re … “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”!

 

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Music in the Club

frank-bart-mcfadden-rick-carl

Bart McFadden visited the Joy of Music School not long ago and was impressed by what he saw.

We’re especially happy about that because Bart is the new president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley, an organization that’s near to our hearts.

The Joy of Music School—which was founded in a Boys & Girls Club building!—teaches several music classes at two Knoxville Boys & Girls Club sites and a Boys & Girls Club program at Dogwood Elementary School. The classes are led by Will Carter and Anthony Hussey, and they include introduction to music, hand drumming and the basic elements of music.

Julie Carter, our director of music education, says we teach music to more than 150 kids affiliated with Boys & Girls Clubs.

Our total outreach program, which includes choir director Jessie Compton and brings lessons to a few other after-school venues, reaches hundreds children annually.

“Having a music experience is just so important,” says Bart, whose mother taught music at a Boys & Girls Club when he was growing up in Johnson City. “You just never know when you’re going to find a kid who has a real talent for it. It can catapult them to successes they never could have imagined.”

We couldn’t agree more.

 

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A Letter from the Executive Director

Frank Graffeo, Executive Director

Francis Graffeo, Executive Director

Our mission says we serve “at risk” youth. Kids with no supervision and no direction are at risk. Whether at home or on the streets, the enemies are inadequate nutrition (or its opposite, obesity), idle vandalism, unfettered internet access, defenselessness from intruders, gang influence and more. Those are risks that kids cannot handle on their own. They degrade a child’s character, work ethic and self-image, and bring communities down. It’s risky out there. So let’s protect youth from risk.

Risk is bad, right? Not all of it. Our children can benefit from risk-taking, but adults need to help. I’ve seen kids risk a great deal, putting a lot on the line and emerging better and stronger on the other end. I’m talking about positive risk-taking. In public. On display. With adult guidance. Learning a piece of music, grappling with an instrument, trudging to lessons, putting in the practice time, the repetition, the effort. That’s hard. But those are just the buildup to that perilous moment when the hall goes silent and it’s time to perform, scared or not. That kind of risk has little downside and an enormous upside. Talk about character, work ethic and self-image! When a child has put in the effort and can stand on a stage and do something that most of their friends (and most adults) cannot do, they gain a self-confidence that no one can defeat. And they get applause for it!

In a performance kids risk embarrassment, failure, perhaps social standing. If they fail, stop playing and slither off the stage, who is in the wings? A teacher. Their family. Their friends. All there to give support and encouragement for next time. If we’ve done it right, a kid risks disappointment … but not from others; rather, the enemy is disappointment in oneself. The child controls what’s coming out of that instrument. It’s ultimately up to one person. Face the risk and succeed! Defeat disappointment and celebrate!

What better way to develop a sense of self? Set goals. Self-monitor. Encounter risk. Music does that for kids. Kids do that with music. Encourage the risk. Watch the growth.

Francis Graffeo

 

 

 

Executive Director

 

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It’s Recital Time in Tennessee!

JoMs_recital_kids

The Joy of Music School’s Spring Recital has a new home. This year, all the fun and excitement take place at the Scottish Rite Temple, right across from the University of Tennessee campus at 612 16th Street.

Save the date: Saturday, May 7, from 2- 4 p.m.  The Scottish Rite Temple is “a great venue,” says Julie Carter, the Joy of Music School’s Director of Music Education. “There’s a really big auditorium with plenty of seating for the audience, and there is lots of space on the floor and the stage for performances.”

Our annual recital is a truly special event. Roughly 65 of our students will climb up on that stage to show their families and friends what they’ve accomplished—musically and personally—this year. There will be singers, pianists, guitarists, drummers, and all manner of brass and string performances. There will be jangly nerves — and great big smiles of satisfaction and pride.

The event is free of charge for all. Be sure to stick around afterward for a warm and celebratory reception in the temple’s fellowship hall.

We are most grateful to the Scottish Rite Temple for letting us use their beautiful performance space, and to Knoxville’s HomeTrust Bank for sponsoring this important and fun event!


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Letter from the Executive Director

Francis Graffeo

Francis Graffeo

Our volunteer teachers do the bulk of the weekly work here. Our staff also works hard, making sure everything is in place for the teachers and students. But there is another group of workers who don’t always get the spotlight—our board members. They do amazing and sometimes unexpected things to keep this organization operating at its best and growing for the future. A few examples: Professional writer and editor Pete Finch has been the anonymous editor of this newsletter for many years. Cindi Alpert donates air time and production work at her radio station. Susan Brackney gives hundreds of hours a year to our holiday fundraiser event. Many members are, or have been, volunteer teachers. We get legal advice from attorney Rick Carl. Mike Combs, founding board president, is a master organizer and motivator, giving countless hours to many initiatives. Tim Purcell connects us to the corporate world, and tackles problems with his ingenuity and hard work. Treasurer Lisa Price Scott, CPA, oversees our financial work. Bank president Trey Coleman helps with strategy and financial decision-making. These wonderful people, and many more unmentioned here, bind the School to the community. They strengthen existing bonds and reach out to form new ones. They conduct meetings, set policies, oversee, plan, protect, and care for the Joy of Music School. They attend recitals and applaud our kids like they would their own. They write checks. They find donated goods and services. They set an example and ask nothing in return. For all of that, they have our gratitude!

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Francis Graffeo

Executive Director


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‘Broadcasting Live from … the Bank Lobby?’

Frank at the bank

Knoxville’s HomeTrust Bank recently turned 90 and celebrated with a bustling party in its normally quiet, professional lobby. Joy of Music School Executive Director Frank Graffeo attended — and got to join a live WNML Sports Radio broadcast from the bank. Frank talked about his love of the Dallas Cowboys, and about the School, of course. The party also featured cornhole, drawings, prizes, pizza, cake, refreshments, and other things you might never expect in a bank lobby. HomeTrust Bank is the sponsor of the Joy of Music School Spring Recital (see article on page 1). Many thanks to JoMS board member and former volunteer guitar teacher Trey Coleman, president of the bank!

 

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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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A ‘Buon Appetito’ Worth Bidding On

The Maestro at Work

The Maestro at Work

It’s always one of the most sought-after items in our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits live auction. And with good reason. Who wouldn’t want a delicious, multicourse Italian dinner prepared by the “maestro” himself, Joy of Music School Executive Director Frank Graffeo?

“It was magnifico,” reports Geoff Proud, who won the Graffeo dinner at the 2013 Holiday Sparkles & Spirits. In fact, he and his wife, Melody, enjoyed the dinner for eight so much they made the top bid in 2014 too! (The auction actually got so heated, Frank agreed to do two dinners—one for the Prouds and one for fellow top bidders Carey and John Merz.)

The menu: pasta (made from scratch at the party), eggplant and chicken parmagiana, Italian broccolini, salad, and gelato for dessert. The parmagiana recipe came from one of Frank’s conducting teachers back in his school days. Though he was Irish, Frank recalls, “he was an opera conductor, so he can be considered an honorary Italian!”

Be sure to attend our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits event at Cherokee Country Club on Tuesday, Dec. 8. You’ll have a chance to bid on wonderful gift items like this — and many more.


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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