Joy of Music School

Music Notes – Newsletter

Category Archives: Welcome!


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Welcome Hannah

We are very happy to announce that Hannah Lozano has joined the Joy of Music School as Development and Marketing Manager. She will interact with our generous donors, foundations, and businesses that support the School. Hannah will also oversee our efforts to make the Joy of Music School a household word across East Tennessee.


“Hannah’s strong affinity for our programs, grants expertise, and deep experience in youth-serving organizations make her a strong addition to our excellent staff,” says Executive Director Frank Graffeo.

Hannah, a native Texan, has served as development coordinator at Harmony Family Center of Knoxville, and recently worked with the Knox Education Foundation as a Community School site coordinator, interacting with students and families in its youth-focused programs. Throughout her career, Hannah has worked in after-school and in-school programming, including valuable experience coordinating with Joy of Music School outreach teachers at Dogwood and Lonsdale Elementary Schools!


Hannah enjoys reading and spending time with her partner, Evan, and hanging out with their dog, Reina.


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Farewell Cindi, Welcome Jack

Any jazz or pop musician will tell you that “changes” are chords that make up a song’s harmony and tonality. Well, there are some changes of the standard variety taking place at the Joy of Music School this January, but they’re still intended to keep the music flowing. We will bid a fond farewell to our board president Cindi Alpert as she rotates out of that position after two years.

Cindi, a jazz musician herself, and a radio station owner to boot, started supporting the School in 2012 with an event sponsorship. She then created a charitable promotional CD through her radio station, 106.1 The River, of local musicians playing holiday music. All of the proceeds supported JoMS. She went on to create our Swing for Joy charity golf tournament in 2016, which is thriving.

Cindi joined the board in 2014 and was elected president in 2018. “Cindi’s energy and overflowing charitable heart made this a better organization from the minute we connected with her,” says Executive Director Francis Graffeo. “We are all so grateful.”

Term limits dictate that she now step off of the board for at least a year, but she intends to continue her support. “I’m a lifelong musician and immediately connected with the mission of the School when I learned about their mission,” she says. “I will always be a supporter and collaborator.”

Cindi will be replaced in 2020 by President-Elect Jack Fellers, a retired professor from the University of Tennessee. Jack is already an enthusiastic board leader, having served on several committees, and is a volunteer piano teacher at the School. He has served on the board of directors of the UT School of Music as well. “I’m looking forward to directing my energies toward the continued success of the School and of the kids we teach,” he says.

These changes, like any good set of chords, make the best kind of harmony.

 


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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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Welcome to Our Newest Tenant

Chad Bailey

Our founder, James Dick, created a strong business model for the School, one that included diverse revenue streams, both earned and unearned. One such foundational revenue stream is rent from office tenants on our building’s second floor. Earlier this year we had a tenant move out, and we’ve been working to refill that office space and restore that inflow of cash to help support our mission ever since.

We are happy to report that we’ve made some progress by welcoming Bailey’s Band Room as a tenant, occupying two small offices. Yes, how lucky are we that our newest tenant is a professional musical instrument repair technician? Chad Bailey, whose experience repairing instruments is unsurpassed in Knoxville, found us and was immediately inspired to set up shop in our building. He’s even donating needed ongoing repairs to the instruments we provide our kids! It’s a perfect match. Welcome Chad! Learn more at baileysbandroom.com.

 

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Back to School, Joyfully

backtoschoolcollage

School is in session at the Joy of Music School, which means our halls and lesson rooms are humming with activity and melodies fill the air. The fall semester enrollment is on track to exceed last year, when we had 200 students and 85 volunteer teachers, says Julie Carter, Director of Music Education.

A few exciting new developments: We’ve added a second, more advanced baritone ukulele class. Ed Sublett, our Manager of Volunteer Resources, has expanded his Multimedia Production and Engineering course to include a second year. It focuses on shooting and editing videos to accompany music. And for the first time, we’re teaching the fiddle (in addition to the classical violin).


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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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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