Teacher Profile: Anne Simpson
About Anne Simpson
Teaching piano combines two of the driving passions in Anne Simpson's life - music and education. Whether teaching children to read written words or music from a page, she delights in opening doors of opportunity and insight; and feels that nothing is more satisfying than to see the light of understanding dawn in a pupil's eyes. Her adult career has been spent largely in the world of education, mostly in private schools. She currently resides with her family in Leesburg, VA.
Anne's musical journey began at the age of 5 when she first started taking piano lessons from the local piano teacher of her small hometown in Maryland. As a young child, she was fairly resistant to practicing for her lessons; but by the age of 12, she had found her groove and began playing the piano regularly for the small congregation her father pastored. She had the opportunity to train with a classical Russian pianist for a year in Moscow, Russia, where her technique was strengthened and her ability to emote musically was developed. She continues to regularly develop her skills by practicing new material, reading books, taking theory courses, learning new instruments, and playing regularly at church and other venues.
Anne is a certified teacher in Kodaly methodology, which she utilizes both in her role as general music teacher in a private school in Fairfax County, and in the private piano lessons she provides. She can also be found teaching music literacy with the Youth Choirs of the Fairfax Choral Society. Using such tools as visual aids, movable solfege, hand signs, and rhythm syllables, young children learn quickly to read and write musical symbols with ease.
Whether at school, at choir, or at a private piano lesson, Anne's teaching goals are summed up nicely by Zoltan Kodaly himself: "Teach music and singing in such a way that it is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for a lifetime." And as her teacher Lamar Robertson, great American Kodaly educator and author, said, "Make them glad they came!"