$2 Million Dorm Coming To Visible Music College

A new five-story dormitory is on the way for the Visible Music College campus at 200 Madison Ave.

On Oct. 12, Grinder, Taber & Grinder Inc. applied for a $2 million building permit for the school’s first on-campus housing.

Renderings by project architect Archimania show that the student housing building will sit at 202 Madison Ave., in the parking lot immediately to the east of Visible Music College. Typical living floors have room for 14 units and common gathering space.

– Madeline Faber

Withers Collection Photos On Display at Crescent Club

Photos from the archives of the late Memphis photojournalist Ernest Withers will be on loan to the Crescent Club in East Memphis.

The images on the walls of the club will be museum-quality, silver gelatin prints made by the Withers Collection Museum & Gallery from the original negatives.

Rosalind Withers, the leader of the foundation that oversees the archives, and Ernest R. Sawyer, the grandson of Ernest Withers, selected the images.

The images are from Withers’ civil rights movement coverage as well as his photographs of entertainers and athletes.

“His artistry is obvious when you look at these pictures,” said Corrin Green, Crescent Club general manager. “More than that, though, they remind us how much was at stake here, just a little more than a generation ago.”

Tours of the exhibition for nonmembers are available by calling the club at 901-684-1010.

Rosalind Withers will speak at a Women On The Move luncheon at the Crescent Club Oct. 23 at 11:30 a.m.

– Bill Dries

Quire Unveils Technology For Predictive Analytics

Memphis-based Quire has announced the launch of new technology that provides health care organizations with a unique approach supporting value-based care.

The technology uses artificial intelligence algorithms to quickly and flexibly develop predictive models from unstructured text in clinical notes and electronic medical records. Quire’s approach enables providers to significantly increase the odds that their limited intervention resources are directed to the patients where care management teams can have maximum impact on the health and cost of a population.

Quire, according to CEO Brad Silver, can quickly search through millions of doctors’ notes and automatically make inferences based on that information.

“Quire’s technology makes it much faster and easier to pinpoint the patients most likely to have hospital admissions and readmissions,” said Dr. Scott Fowler, president and CEO of Holston Medical Group, in a release. “It’s a big advance over structured data analytics because it lets you identify what’s under the metrics. With Quire, we can get a handle on root causes, which can include behavioral and social issues in addition to medical complexities of chronic illnesses.”

– Andy Meek

Memphis Symphony Taps Bradner as Interim CEO

The Memphis Symphony Orchestra has tapped a new interim leader following the resignation of president and CEO Roland Valliere.

Jennifer Bradner will serve as the symphony’s interim president and CEO. She moves to the position from her current role as COO, a position she has held since June 2014.

Bradner served as executive director of Opera Memphis from 2008 to 2014. She also has held positions at Blue Grace Music and Folk Alliance International, as well as teaching at Memphis College of Art and Southwest Tennessee Community College.

“Jennifer is experienced in arts leadership and management, she knows the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and she knows our Memphis community,” said the nonprofit’s board chair Gayle Rose.

Valliere will step down in November.

– Don Wade

Memphis No. 2 For Home Affordability

Memphis ranks as the second most affordable city for homebuyers among the 100 largest metro areas.

According to a recent study by NerdWallet, an average Memphis family making $81,200 annually can comfortably afford a $283,998 home. Those homes come in at 3,663 average square feet, or about $78 per square foot.

Houses in Memphis are 1,000 square feet bigger than what families making the same amount could afford in Nashville and Knoxville.

Memphis and Raleigh, N.C., are the only two cities in the top 10 list that are not in the Midwest.

NerdWallet's affordability tool can be accessed here.

– Madeline Faber

FDA Accepts Application For GTx Clinical Trial

Memphis-based GTx Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted the company’s investigational new drug application for a Phase 2 clinical trial to treat postmenopausal women with stress urinary incontinence.

The application enables GTx to initiate a Phase 2 proof-of-concept trial of enobosarm. The company plans to initiate the trial by the first quarter of 2016 and anticipates top-line data later in 2016.

– Andy Meek

Graceland Lighting Ceremony To Feature Trisha Yearwood

Elvis Presley’s Graceland will officially begin the holiday season when Trisha Yearwood “flips the switch” on the traditional lights and decorations during the annual lighting ceremony Friday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m.

Patients from Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis will assist Yearwood in lighting up Elvis Presley’s iconic home for the season.

The extensive Christmas display includes hundreds of blue lights along the driveway, a life-size Nativity scene and Santa and his sleigh, all originally displayed at Graceland by Elvis and the Presley family.

The interiors of Graceland mansion will feature the Presley family’s Christmas decor starting Nov. 20 for seasonal holiday tours through his birthday celebration in January. Included will be his traditional red velvet drapes.

Yearwood, a life-long Elvis fan, is one of the biggest-selling female performers in country music history.

– Don Wade

Nine Apply For Tennessee Supreme Court Vacancy

Nine attorneys have applied for the vacancy on the Tennessee Supreme Court created by the September retirement of Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade.

The applicants to the Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments include Memphis attorneys Larry Scroggs and Robert Meyers as well as Matthew Cavitch of Eads.

Scroggs is chief administrative officer and chief counsel of Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court.

Meyers is an attorney with the Glankler Brown law firm and is chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission.

There are six other applicants to be interviewed by the council, which will send a list of three finalists to Gov. Bill Haslam.

– Bill Dries