Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Category Archives: Volunteers

Without volunteer music teachers, there would be no Joy of Music School. They are the heart and soul of the organization!


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The Intersection of Vision and Generosity

 

“On the road again,” sings Willie Nelson, “I just can’t wait to get on the road again!” No matter how captivating the traveling life may be, every road warrior eventually needs fuel, sustenance, and rest. Nobody meets those needs better than one of the Joy of Music School’s most faithful sustainers, Pilot Flying J. Pilot Flying J is partnering with the Haslam Family Foundation as Presenting Sponsors of our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits fundraiser again this year (see page 1).

Founder Jim Haslam’s company and his family’s foundation annually pair up to make sure our event is a success, but more important, they help assure our volunteers can solidly carry out our mission. The Foundation and corporate support are proof to us that Mr. Haslam’s vision is matched only by his generosity. Pilot Flying J stores (more than 750, serving 1.6 million daily guests) line the highways of the continent. So, next time you’re on the road again and you spot a Pilot Flying J, pump the brakes. Stop in for fuel, rest, and goodness. Reflect on how those good folks support the art and discipline of music for deserving kids here in East Tennessee. Then, hop back in your car, turn up the music, and ease on down the road.

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Q & A With Breyon Ewing

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.

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How You Can Help

• Do you seal and stripe parking lots? Ours could use some love.

• Invite friends to Holiday Sparkles & Spirits.

• Volunteer to teach! We always need teachers!

• Help us with replacing instrument cases on Indiegogo at “Cases4kidz”

• Follow us on Instagram at @joyofmusicschool

• Do you do harpsichords? Ours needs some expert maintenance.

• Be Like Susan Brackney…

 

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The Waiting Game

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.

Then — and this is important — NyKeesha continued to follow up with our Music Director Julie Carter. Do you have a spot for my daughter? Can she begin lessons anytime soon?

This was music to Julie’s ears. “I love to hear from parents,” she says. “The more parental involvement, the better. You know that saying about the squeaky wheel?”

When NyKeesha called Julie to check in back in October, the timing was perfect. “Nazaria’s schedule matched Ashley’s schedule and we were able to put them together,” Julie recalls. “I was really happy.”

Probably not as happy as Nazaria and her mom. “I was overjoyed,” says NyKeesha. “Nazaria is super-excited. It makes my heart so happy. We just went and picked up a keyboard for her yesterday. As soon as she gets home from school, she wants to get right on it.”

At the moment, our waiting list has about 15 students. Wouldn’t you like to help a kid like Nazaria experience the joy of music? If you’re a potential volunteer teacher, please call us at 865-525-6806 and let’s find a way to make it happen!

 

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Lights, Camera, JoMS

Alex Oliver, CEO of Knoxville’s Draft Agency, has earned a lot of cred for his filmmaking. He holds several Addy Awards, and he made a film that hit No. 11 worldwide on the iTunes documentary charts. (It’s called Voyage and it’s about a boat trip from Knoxville to the Gulf of Mexico.) His company boasts clients like Clayton Homes, SeaRay, ORNL and more.

To our delight, Alex got wind of the Joy of Music School and was inspired to create a six-minute movie about what we do and why we do it. Alex and his Draft Agency sound and camera team followed staff, volunteers, and others for months. You’ve got to see it. Taber Gable, an illustrious Joy of Music School grad, is featured, among others. The storytelling, montage, and music from Alex’s imagination are sensational. Alex shared it with us in July. No charge. It’s for the kids of the School. See for yourself why we are so thrilled: https:// youtu.be/Jf54P6zzwv4

 

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JoMS by the Numbers

• Students we’ve taught: 2,617
• Volunteer teachers: 551
• All-time board members: 239
• All-time donors: 3,922
• New donors who saw us on “Secret Millionaire”: 308
• Miles from Knoxville for our most far-flung donation: 4,256 (Oslo, Norway)
• Students who’ve majored in music at college: 5
• Students who’ve come back to teach at JoMS: 4
• Most years as a volunteer teacher: 16 (Anthony Hussey)
• Groups we’ve applied to for grant funding: 150
• Groups that’ve said yes: 140
• Number of grants: 931

 

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How You Can Help

  • Are you a JoMS alum? Contact us! We want to keep in touch!
  • Know an alum? Give them this newsletter!
  • Join our special events committee. Movers and shakers step forward!
  • Our parking lot is thirsty for a sealcoat and restriping.
  • Volunteer to teach! It’s time! We really need violin, percussion, and piano.
  • A retired business owner, Rick is a super-generous supporter of our School. At last year’s Holiday Sparkles& Spirits fundraiser, he committed to replacing all 50 of our dilapidated chairs. We got them in July!

 

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Board Member Profile: Michael Combs

Michael Combs never saw it coming. He had attended a few planning sessions for James A. Dick’s proposed Joy of Music School, and as is his nature, Michael asked good, thoughtful questions about how the School would function. But he never expected that at its first official board meeting, back in 1998, Mr. Dick would announce, “Our board president is going to be Michael Combs.”

“I gulped a little bit!” Michael says with a laugh, remembering that evening 20 years ago. “I mean, I was really supportive of Mr. Dick’s idea for the School, and I felt I couldn’t say no. But I was a Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee. I didn’t know anything about being a board president!”

Luckily he was surrounded by many people who did. Martha Weaver, director of development for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, encouraged him to set up board committees, he recalls. Bill Davis Sr., Mr. Dick’s lawyer, helped write the by-laws. CPA Jenny Hines handled most of the financial matters. “One of James Dick’s friends helped us get established as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization,” Michael recalls.

Michael served two three-terms and rotated off the board. He came back a few years later as a board member (not the president) and served another six-year term. At the moment he’s in the third year of another six-year run.

Michael is our only current board member who was there at the beginning.

His biggest surprise over the years? “James Dick and the rest of us thought we would just be giving clarinets or violins to kids and showing them how to play,” Michael says. “We didn’t realize what important friends and role models the volunteer teachers would be.”

He notes that Executive Director Frank Graffeo—who joined soon after Michael stepped down as board president—has emphasized character growth as well as musical accomplishment. “He’s created a system where they earn prizes for being on time, bringing their materials and instruments, practicing, and showing kindness and respect to their teacher. All that is built into program now, but it really took us by surprise.”

And Michael’s greatest pleasure? “It’s always been the children,” he says. “I remember when the first one finished at the School and went to UT. He is Preston Sangster. He is a bassoon player, and he got a scholarship. We all turned around and said, ‘Look at what we’ve done!’ Those moments were very, very special for us.”


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Introducing Our New Board Members

Every year we welcome new members onto our board of directors. In 2018 they include Fay Adams, Harold Duckett, Marsha Hollingsworth, Dametraus Jaggers, and Joyce Thames. Welcome!

We also are happy to greet board members returning to their roles after sitting out a year or more. They are Trey Coleman and Harold Black. Welcome back!

 

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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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Volunteer Teacher Spotlight: Sonya Eichler

Alyssa and her teacher, Sonya.

Sonya Eichler feels “very, very good” about her decision to volunteer as a piano teacher at the Joy of Music School, and we can assure her the feeling is mutual.

“I’m up there in years,” says Sonya, who is 85 and began teaching at the School about a decade ago. “It gives me something to do. It makes me feel like I have something to offer.”

Sonya taught a bit of piano at home when her children were young. But she notices a big difference between those days and now. “I was not in love with teaching back then,” she recalls. “It was somewhat fun, but not fun like the Joy of Music School. Now I feel I follow my own instincts as a teacher. I’m not working for money, I’m working for sheer joy of the activity. It’s very liberating!”

She cherishes the tight friendships she’s built with her Joy of Music School students—and none more than with Alyssa, her piano student for the past four years. “I’m so proud of her. She’s extremely bright and very musical. Just a wonderful person.”

Sonya and Alyssa’s family have become close friends, too. Sonya doesn’t drive any longer, so Alyssa’s family brings her to the School and back for lessons on Monday afternoons. They’ve been known to bring Sonya homemade vegetable soup for dinner, and when she returned from Boston recently, Alyssa was waiting for her at the airport with a bouquet of flowers.

“I adore all of them,” Sonya says of the family. “They’re simply warmhearted, kind, considerate, loving people.”

 

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Mr. Fix-It to the Rescue

Kenny Webb

Kenny Webb has a hobby that we think is the greatest. That’s because our students are the grateful beneficiaries of it.

The retired electrician buys damaged violins, fixes them up, and donates them to the Joy of Music School. So far he’s brought us 10, with more on the way.

“I find a lot of them on eBay,” explains Kenny, who lives in Rutledge County. “Occasionally I’ll find one in a pawn shop or antique store.”

Most go for about $50 to $100, and they’re in non-working condition.

Kenny takes them to his in-home shop and replaces their missing or broken tuners, sound posts, bridges, tailpieces and more. He figures they’re worth $250 to $400 when he’s done.

He plays the violin himself, at church and in a bluegrass/gospel outfit called the Over the Hill Gang. His love of music is why he wants to support our students. Says Kenny: “It’s been a thrill to me, just knowing I’m helping these children get to play the violin.”

 

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