Performing Arts School Faculty Member Joyce Alexander
“I was born into a musical family,” said Joyce Alexander, an early childhood music teacher and music therapist at Wharton Performing Arts School. Her father, Banard Alexander, was an accomplished trumpet player in the Navy band. Alexander, the youngest of 5 siblings, was born in Guam. “My family moved wherever there was a port,” Alexander said. “We lived in Hawaii, Virginia, and Seattle. There was always music in the house!” Her father played and composed music with Quincy Jones and was even asked to join his band. Alexander said as she sipped her chai, “My father would help him arrange music, but didn’t want to take the leap to leave his family and go on the road. He didn’t want us to struggle.” She recalled when she was a toddler, she had stepped on Jones’ compositions that had fallen on the floor. “Wherever we moved, my mother always had a piano in the house. We were like the Waltons. Do you remember that TV show? My whole family would sing together on Sunday.”
Then, when she was 5, her father passed away and her mother moved the family to Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she went to Brooklyn Technical High School. “We lived in a building where we were the only non-Hasidic Jewish family. I was friends with some girls who lived in the building, but I couldn’t play with them after their fathers came home. And after they turned 13, I wasn’t allowed to play with them anymore. That’s when I learned about the world,” she said sadly.
After she graduated from high school, she attended State University at Buffalo to study architecture and Interior design. “After a year and a half, I was miserable and told my mother I would work instead.” She got an apartment in Queens and an entry level job working for Texas Instruments, and decided to take music classes for enjoyment.
She took piano and vocal lessons, German, Portuguese, and Japanese because she loves languages. A friend took her out to hear music and introduced her to a guitarist who was a music therapist. Intrigued, she asked him what she would need to do to go into his field. “I was musically inclined, but I didn’t want to perform.” When she was 28, she was accepted into a 5-year music therapy program at Montclair State University. “My courses were 50% psychology and 50% music education– it was intimidating, but I’ve never regretted it.” She excelled in the program and worked as a student teacher with children who had been emotionally and psychologically abused.
She worked as a music therapist in a public school with children who had special needs before she made the transition to Wharton Arts. Some of the students she’s worked with are hearing impaired, blind, or are on the autism spectrum. “I meet them where they are,” Alexander said. “I always make music enjoyable for the children. I don’t overwhelm them with different therapies. My goal is to first make music relaxing for them, and then I focus on social-emotional strategies.” She lets parents know that it’s important to build trust with the children. “I follow their lead. I start with their strengths. If teachers do that, there’s no need to reprimand them. Humor and joking are helpful.” The children at Wharton Arts are always delighted to see her and run into her classroom eager to play music and talk with her about their week.
Early in her career, a professor recommended her for a position as a music therapist at the Suburban Community Music Center in New Providence, which later became Wharton Arts. Ms. Lipton, who was the Executive Director, hired her on the spot. Currently, Alexander works 4 days a week at Cedar Hill Preparatory School and teaches general music and chorus. Her son, Conor Hampton, began piano lessons at Wharton Arts at age 7 and then transitioned to flute lessons when he was 11-years-old. He became a member of NJYS on flute when he was 16-years-old. He currently attends Northeastern University in Boston and is majoring in civil engineering and computer science. He also plays the flute in the university’s orchestra.
Alexander met her husband, Brian Hampton, when they were working with children with special needs. “He was the lead teacher, so we couldn’t date then,” she smiled. They started dating after she left and they’ve been married for 23 years. “If I had to go back to school, I would become a musicologist. I love languages, history, and music from around the world. I’m always drawn to new things!”