ABOUT ANNE-MARIE KATEMOPOULOS

Cocoa Beach, Florida

Universal Studios, Florida

Disneyland, California

I was born in Hong Kong and spent the first ten years of my life there before immigrating to the U. S. and landing in San Jose, where I’ve lived ever since, attending Dartmouth Middle School and Branham High School (Class of 1983!).

My original goal was to major in business and get rich.  All it took was my first college business math class at San Jose State University to change that plan.  I went on to get my B. A. in Music Performance (Voice) there.  In my last year, I became an artist-in-residence at San Jose High Academy, working in their Electronic Music program as a teacher’s assistant.   From there, I took over their fledgling choral program, building it to two choirs in two years, and supervised the music for their first musical in recent memory (“Bye Bye Birdie”).  I then left SJHA to teach at Abraham Lincoln High School and now am in my 29th year there!   I team-taught musical theatre for the first seventeen of those years, but for the last eleven years have exclusively taught the choirs (and assist with the vocals for the MT productions).  During my time at Lincoln, I completed my
M. A. in Choral Conducting at SJSU.  My groups have traveled all over the United States on tour, and I’m happy to have watched my students develop, both as musicians and as global citizens.    

Along the way, I’ve maintained my lifelong passion for reading and travel.  I enjoy all things artistic, whether I am creating or appreciating.  I began arranging music for my jazz ensembles and medley revues for musical theatre, but what started as pure necessity has grown into a continuing passion for arranging and writing for ALL ensembles.  I’ve been blessed to have my arrangements performed by groups of all sizes and ages, most notably for combined district ensembles with hundreds of singers. Some say the gift is being able to complete the arrangement, but in reality, the gift is hearing the performance.

The adventures continue.  The MacBook on my lap (I’m a lifelong Apple fan) provides connections via Facebook and email to family, friends and former students worldwide...I'm still working on Instagram!  Coffee and chocolate are my undoing, but I have a not-so-secret passion for turkey legs!  I am a lifelong Disney fan, I am a loyal and faithful Gryffindorian, and I adore travel—I aspire to visit every continent and all 50 states in the US, as well as every Disney Park and cruise!  I have recently discovered that I truly enjoy gardening and am having a great time working on both front and back yards at my home.  I am fascinated by our family's cats (Patch, Gidget, Quinn, Ron and Harry), who are all rescue animals with eclectic personalities.  I’d like to feel that I won’t ever stop learning and trying new stuff, and I’m humbled to call my students my best teachers.