Director, Terri Partyka is a life-long music lover, and people lover.
In elementary school, she decided she wanted to be a percussionist, because of the variety of ways she could make music. The variety thing must have stuck, because she started adding a variety of musical instruments to her repertoire, including double bass, hammered dulcimer, and of course, piano.
She has played in various bands and orchestras in the area, including the Metropolitan Symphonic Band, and the Macomb Symphony Orchestra.
She started her teaching journey in 1998, as a Kindermusik® educator, teaching early childhood music and movement. While looking for a way to keep music fun and enjoyable for her students, looking to continue their music education, she discovered Simply Music®, in 2006.
What she found was an a method of learning music that changed her life and her students' lives, allowing them to be self-generating musicians throughout their music education journey. Ms. Terri believes that music is for everyone, and is always looking for ways to share it.
Music has always been a big part of Dawn Anderson’s life. She started taking accordion lessons when she was eight years old and continued for seven more years. The last few years of High School, she started taking piano lessons. Dawn loves singing and has sung in many groups while in school/college and in church.
In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her brothers and sister’s families along with cheering the MSU Spartans on to victory. Dawn loves teaching Simply Music because it allows her to use her degree as an Elementary Education teacher and apply methods in learning new songs.
“It is exciting to see the joy and ease in which my students are able to quickly play the piano.”
David Sanchez was born in Detroit and raised in Roseville, Michigan, the youngest of 15 children. As a child, his love of music was first instilled by his parents, and followed by the guidance of a multitude of music teachers and band directors. Under their tutelage, David realized that he wanted to be a music teacher.
This journey lead him to earning a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Central Michigan University, and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership, from Saginaw Valley State University. David Sanchez teaches ALL beginning and intermediate school band instruments, and teaches advanced level saxophone, and jazz saxophone. He has taught grades 5 through 12 for various school districts in the Metro-Detroit area over a seventeen year span.
Personally, David has had the honor of performing at Carnegie Hall (twice!), at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreaux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), and the CBDNA Conference in Kansas City (Wind Ensemble). He has also had the pleasure of performing with various artists. In addition, David is the leader of the seven piece cover band, Under Pressure. David and his wife, Beth, who is also a music teacher share their music with their two children.
If you ask Rocco Guirlanda who his first love is, he will tell you that it’s music. Since the Beatles debut performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Rocco Guirlanda has been lifelong lover of music. As he grew, he always knew what he wanted to do for a living: a musician or firefighter. He started at 8 years old taking guitar lesson and dabbled with lots of other instruments over the years, but always returned to guitar as his main instrument.
In his 20s he got married and pursued becoming a firefighter, eventually becoming a professional firefighter/paramedic. Throughout the years, he’s been a scout leader, substitute teacher, actor in TV, stage and film and social worker. Unfortunately, during this time, his guitars rarely got out of their cases.
But, in 2017, he retired and picked up his musical side again. He took voice, and then began piano lessons with Terri Partyka. He picked up his guitar again and began learning the ukulele. When an opportunity arose to teach beginner guitar and ukulele, he volunteered, and now enjoys sharing music with others.
