Don Childress

Don Childress, who sports the nickname “Duck,” recently graduated from Bearden High School and has as his life’s goal to be a professional musician and teacher.

A guitarist who’s familiar with a wide range of music styles, Don especially enjoys rock, jazz, bluegrass, country and blues. He’s lead guitarist and vocalist for two Knoxville bands and keeps busy performing.

Don’s hope, in teaching, is to pass along his love of music. “I think it’s good to pass music around and share it with everybody,” he emphasizes. “Everyone deserves a chance to learn.” He doesn’t put age limits on the students he’ll accept.

At lessons with new students, Don prefers to first see what they already know. He thinks it’s important to also find out what their goals are. Do they want to learn just chords, or learn to read melodies? “If they can sit still for scales and music theory, I’d be happy to help them with that, too” he grins.

As a musician who loves his guitar and making music, Don was inspired to play guitar because his father had a guitar. “Dad taught me some chords, and it was ‘away we go’ from then on,” Don says, adding “The bottom line is that I always want my students to have fun. If they’re not having fun, then they’re wasting their time and their money.”

William Mason

William Mason, student of Jeanine Lafitte Wilkinson, at the 2008 E.T.S.B.O.A Junior Orchestra Clinic at Carson Newman College. William placed thirteenth in the cello auditions and was principal cellist in the Red Orchestra. Congratulations William!

If you haven’t but would still like to help support our Scholarships and other special programs, please include something extra with your Winter Quarter payment! We know times are tough but we’ll take any amount, no matter how small.

Remember a minimum of $25 will get your name on our recital programs as a Patron. There are also categories for Benefactor and Mentor, and if you give $200 or more, you’ll be a Grantor!

Since we’re a non-profit, anything you give is tax deductible.

If you miss a couple of lessons or have extras during the quarter, don’t panic! We’ll make sure that things come out right at the end of the quarter. We rarely adjust bills in the middle of a quarter – who knows what will happen next week? A makeup lesson, perhaps?

If you discover you’ll be missing a number of lessons, contact our office and we can put you on “hold.”

But remember – if we don’t know about it and don’t get your payment, you’ll probably get hit with the late fee!