Piano Studio of Dr. Philip Autry
We are moving toward the goal of $5000 total by giving Tuesday. Help me toward the dream. . .
It has long been my goal to keep piano lessons affordable, while offering the best possible instruction to children and adults. I have the opportunity to remodel the lower level of my home into The Max E and Evelyn Mayo Autry Recital Hall and Studio.
Will you help me develop this pleasant space in Donelson (Nashville), Tennessee?
Although as a piano studio teacher, I am self-employed, the indirect and direct beneficiary of your gift will be my students, ages 7 to 18, whose lessons will remain affordable and their equipment will be state-of-the-art.
Your donations will help:
1. Maintain Steinway Model M Grand
2. Purchase Steinway Model K-52 Upright
3. Replace one Tecnics PX-107 Digital Upright Piano
4. Update and maintain a Studio Lending and Resource Library consisting of piano textbooks, repertoire books, biographies, and teaching supplies for use by students of the studio.
5. Create an accessible space: A ramp will need to be constructed as well as refurbishments done to the bathroom in order to make the space accessible to students, parents and guests with special needs.
6. Develop an area for receptions after recitals or events.
7. Maintain scholarship fund for tuition and book subsidies to keep lessons affordable for students in the Donelson/Hermitage/Mt. Juliet area.
8. Subsidize summer digital keyboard camp for students who want more experience with General MIDI or their electric keyboards.
9. Set up a Silver Keys Class Piano for senior citizens.
10. Assist with funding for activities. My students regularly participate in the following:
1) Pianorama (Nashville Area Music Teachers Association): The biennial ensemble concert
2) Playing Auditions (Nashville Area Music Teachers Association): for the more advanced students
3) Playing Auditions (National Guild of Piano Teachers): for all students in the studio
4) Christmastime Performances at Heartland Nursing Home
5) Spring Recitals and House Recitals.
above: Ragtime Recital at Cheekwood
below: Autry/Coleman Duo Performance at Steinway Piano Gallery, Nashville (with William Coleman)
During my years as a piano teacher, I have taught at Middle Tennessee State University (part-time), Lipscomb University (part-time), Angelo State University and Fisk University (currently Professor of Music). I have led the Fisk University Faculty Assembly as Chair and the Tennessee Music Teachers Association as President. Help me lead my piano studio in making a larger footprint.
above: Guests from Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia perform with students from the Piano Studio of Dr. Philip Autry at Lakeshore Heartland in December 2016.
below: The students and teacher participate in a Halloween costume party in the current studio space.
THE PIANO STUDIO OF DR. PHILIP AUTRY
DR. PHILIP AUTRY
Pianist Philip Autry has played solo piano recitals throughout the United States, and presented at national conferences of MTNA, MENC as well as the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and World Piano Pedagogy Conference. His playing has been described as “clarity and precision coupled with feeling and emotion.” He is the recipient of the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Award from the University of Oklahoma School of Music. He is currently Professor of Music and Music Discipline Coordinator in the Fisk University Department of Arts and Languages. Formerly, he was on the faculty of Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.
Recent performances with pianist William Coleman and violinist Stefan Petrescu, highlighting music of John W. Work III and William Grant Still, brought attention to lesser-known chamber music by African-American composers. Roland Carter arranged two Spirituals for the Coleman-Autry piano duo, presented at the 2014 Jubilee Day concert at Fisk University.
Other professional activity includes participation in the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and Mentors and Coordinators Conference of the United Negro College Fund and Mellon Foundation. He has presented at the National Association of Schools of Music Annual Meeting. He was a co-coordinator for the first annual Historically Black College/University Conductors Summit at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and served as Tennessee Music Teachers Association President through the 2005–2007 biennium.
Dr. Autry was awarded the Ridley/Jones Prize from the Fisk University History Department for original, primary research on Fisk University. His research included the preparation of performance scores from microfilmed manuscripts and documents in the Fisk University Library. The research was presented in a lecture recital on the 2009 Piersen Lecture Series. Music Teachers National Association recognized his service to the Music Teaching Profession by naming him an MTNA Foundation Fellow at the 2014 National Conference.
As the faculty advisor for the Zeta Rho Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, his students perform for hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement communities as a mission to take music to people who cannot come to concerts and recitals. He currently volunteers in mentorship to 400 Collegiate members in Tennessee and Kentucky as the Governor of Province 15 of Phi Mu Alpha. The National Fraternity named him Volunteer (Province Governor) of the Year in 2015. Sigma Alpha Iota named him Friend of the Arts in 2016.
above: Publicity photo from 1996.
below: Students showing their Guild Certificates after the 2018 recital at Steinway Piano Gallery
MAX E AUTRY AND EVELYN MAYO AUTRY
It is fitting to name the Recital Hall in my studio for my parents. My parents valued education, and believed that music education was part of the training of an educated person. My brother and I both took piano lessons, and while he dropped piano when he was accepted into the junior high band, I continued with piano. My brother took up art, especially painting (oil on canvas) and our parents were very supportive of him as well as me.
They bought my first piano, a Kimball upright for $200. I traded it in for $900 when I bought my first grand, a Kawai KG-2C. I traded the Kawai (beat up from years of practicing) as part of the down-payment on my Heirloomed Steinway Model M. In a very real way, my parents were the first to endow my teaching.
They paid for years of piano lessons, from my first teacher, Mrs. Barbara Ramsey in Milan, to Dr. Jerome Reed at Lipscomb. They provided tremendous support during graduate and doctoral study. In high school they sent me to summer camp at Southeastern Singing School in Guntersville, Alabama. They sent me to guitar lessons. In fact, once I developed an interest, thanks to my teachers, they helped me develop that interest. The recital hall in the new studio will be lovingly dedicated to them--in memory of her; in honor of him.
MAX E AUTRY
(b. October 5, 1921)
Max Autry was born to Pat and Viola Hendrix Autry in Wildersville, Tennessee, and married Evelyn Mayo of Gibson, Tennessee, July 14, 1947. He grew up working on the farm and his family moved to Humboldt, Tennessee, in 1929. He served in the U.S. Army from November 1942 until November 1945, training near San Diego, California, and serving for 33 months in the Central Pacific, much of the time on Saipan with Battery A, 751st Anti-Aircraft Battalion. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant.
His work history included the White Motor Company, Humboldt, Tennessee; 1946–1948; Humboldt Full-Fashioned Hosiery Mill, Inc., 1948–1956; U.S. Postal Service in Memphis and Milan (1959 to 1989 as carrier for Rural Route 3 in Milan). Ferris R. White described him as “honest, dependable and trustworthy in every respect.” In October, 1956, S. N. Baxter, Personnel Director of the Humbolt Full Fashioned Hosiery Mill said that in his work he “demonstrated a cooperative attitude, a high degree of honesty and integrity and has proved to be a most reliable and capable employee.”
He attended Christian Chapel Church of Christ, Wildersville, with his parents until moving to Humboldt in 1929. Attended Humboldt Church of Christ with his parents until going into the Army. He was baptized in 1946 (the invitation hymn was “O Why Not Tonight"). He and his wife, Evelyn, were members of the Humboldt Church of Christ until 1956, when they moved to Memphis. They were members of the Highland Street Church of Christ, Memphis, 1956–1959 and Main Street Church of Christ in Milan from 1959 until the present day.
While in Memphis, he worked for the U.S. Post Office and was transferred to Milan, where they lived for 60 years
During his time in Milan, he served 22 years at Main Street Church of Christ, 1970 until 1992. He was recognized in 1982 as the longest serving deacon at the time. He also served as a Sunday School Teacher for the 7th and 8th Grade Boys' Class, and when he retired, was recognized for the Longest Continuous Service in Junior High through College Department.
EVELYN MAYO AUTRY
(December 3, 1927–February 12, 2017)
Evelyn Mayo was born to Gaither and Lura Mayo on their farm in Gibson, Tennessee. She was graduated Salutatorian of the Gibson High School Class of 1946. When she was 19, she married Max E Autry of Humboldt, Tennessee. She completed coursework at Draughn's Business College in Memphis (Certificate, 1947).
Her work history included White Motor Company, Humboldt, Tennessee, and The Irvin Fly Co., Inc., Sitka, Tennessee, where she was the lead accountant when she went back to work full-time (after raising two sons, Charles and Philip). At the time she was called the bookkeeper. Her books were immaculate, balancing to the penny. She kept her home books the same way she kept the business books—immaculate, with accounts receivable and accounts payable—right up until her stroke at age 79 in 2007.
She was a member of the Main Street Church of Christ in Milan, where she volunteered with the Cradle Roll and with the Four-Year-Olds.
How can you help? Any size donation will do. If you would like to be recognized at a certain level, make your donation and email me permission to acknowledge you ([email redacted]) GoFundMe does not recognize giving levels at this time.
With your permission, here is how you will be recognized:
$ 50 to $ 99 Donor
$ 100 to $249 Friend
$ 250 to $499 Contributor
$ 500 to $ 749 Partner
$ 750 to $ 999 Patron
$1000 and above Backer
Thank you for your kind gift of support.
Philip E. Autry, D.M.A.
Nationally Certified Teacher of Music
We have crossed another milestone on the way to funding the piano studio. I addition to the we have collected $3,000. I have several challenges out there. I am posting a picture of Max E Autry (b.1921) and Naomi Autry Peterson Janeke (b. 1918) and a picture taken much more recently.
May I challenge all to reach $5000 by Giving Tuesday, December 3? That's a total of $2000. Thanks for your continued generosity.
Philip E. Autry, D.M.A.
Nationally Certified Teacher of Music
Autry Piano Studio
Stakeholders Report:
December 3, 2019
Income:
Gifts--
Backers (2) $40,100
Partners (2) $2,000 Challenges: Family, $1,000 (each)
Contributors (3) $750 Challenges: NAAA (Phi Mu Alpha) $1,000 each
Friends: (2) $200 Challenges: NAMTA (MTNA) $100 each
Donors: (3 $150 Challenges: Former students (Fisk, MTSU, ASU, studio) $1000
Total Gifts: $40,343
Tuition: $800
Expenses: Mortgage on building: $1,500
Mortgage on rental house: $1,100
Repairs on new building: $880
Utilities:
Security: $104.00