JOY is a kindergartener playing the violin.

Hello Friends of JOY!

I would like to introduce myself to you, I am the new Executive Director of Yamhill Enrichment Society, the organization that manages the JOY program. Funding for this position was provided by a generous grant from The Murdock Trust. While I am new to the program, I bring a lifelong love of music, a history of working in the education field, and am looking forward to adding my business background to the mix.  I am very excited to be a part of YES and JOY.

JOY has experienced some changes in the last few months, but we have also been embracing this opportunity for growth and expansion. Recently, Danielle Howard Dye resigned from her position as Program Director for the JOY program, we are assessing our needs moving forward.

JOY has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years, going from operating our program in one elementary school in Newberg Oregon with the first set of kindergartners to now operating in 3 schools within Yamhill County and serving almost 400 students.

Our biggest highlight this past fall is the successful launch at our two newest schools, Buel and Newby Elementaries in the McMinnville School District. We welcomed 150 new students to our program with 4 additional classes of Kindergartners through this expansion.  We are very excited to continue the growth in these additional schools, adding grade levels each year as the initial enrollees move through the school and new Kindergartners join in. Even though these are fresh to the program, the students from Newby were invited to perform on their box violins for the McMinnville School Board during a recent school board meeting. The Principal of Newby, Erika Nesvig, gave a warm introduction to the JOY program and then invited the students along with their teachers to sing songs about bow and violin positions, parts of the instrument and share what they have learned in the program so far. The students were a huge hit. Attendees delighted in the show and marveled with how far the students have come these first few months. 

This fall, all Kindergarten students have been working hard to learn posture, instrument care, bow holds, and more on tissue box violins. The students have now been sized, violins have been ordered and those kindergartners are anticipating their real violins’ arrival in the next week or two. Such an exciting time to be a JOY student! We were recently asked if kindergarteners play on adult sized violins. The answer is no, these kindergartners will be playing on 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, and ¼ sized violins for the first few years.

In December, our 2^nd through 4^th grade students from Newberg performed a wonderful holiday concert for the community, with a special guest conductor at the end of the evening. Santa joined in on the last song, and then visited with the students after the concert. Even with the cold, crisp evening air, it was a wonderful event and a great opportunity to share JOY with the community. We are looking forward to a few more concerts this spring.

In addition to new students, we have welcomed a new teaching artist to our program. Please join me in welcoming Robin Pederson. Robin is not new to the JOY program; she served on our board and helped to establish JOY in Yamhill County. We are excited to have Robin back as both a board member and a teaching artist.

Thank you for your ongoing support of JOY. It is only with your supprt that we have been able to reach so many students over the past five years. We are excited to continue to grow the program and welcome many more students. If you have not already done so, please sign up to give recurring donations through GlobalGiving on our project page “JOY is a Kindergartener Playing the Violin.”