Born in 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, of British parents, he is now 56, married and with three children. His career covers a wide range of performance, touring and recording experience in many varied styles. He said he spent his College years at what he called the “the best Junior College in the nation, El Camino College in Torrence, CA, and with a B.A. in Music and a Masters in Education from Malone College, Canton, Ohio, and a Masters of Divinity degree from Fuller in Pasadena, California.
He teaches Guitar, Piano, Voice, Base Guitar, Mandolin, Octave Mandolin, Hammered and Mountain Dulcimer, Banjo, Trumpet, Baritone, Tuba and Beginning Percussion. He also coaches individuals in Songwriting, and Musical Groups in Performance Technique, as well as Musicianship, Sight Reading and Music Theory for any instruments,
Simkiss smiles when he explains how he once played the tuba in front of an audience of 80,000! He quickly notes that it was in 1972 during the Campus Crusade for Christ and the audience was the football fans in the stands at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
These days his teaching takes place at a more quiet and confined location -- Joyful Sounds Academy of Music & Arts located at 117 E. Vance Street in Fuquay-Varina. As one of his students put it: “William is a very passionate, encouraging and professional teacher and friend. He is very funny and works interesting anecdotes into his lessons.”
His wife, Sue, is heavily involved in her family, Simkiss said, and very active in PTA leadership, including being PTA President at both Fuquay-Varina Elementary School and currently (2009-2010) at Fuquay-Varina Middle School,” he explained. “She’s a wonderful singer and we’ve toured together as a duo and part of a trio and a larger ensemble.”
They have three children. Kirsten is 18 and a graduate of Fuquay-Varina High School majoring in Art. She currently is attending Western Carolina University majoring in Digital Animation and Fine Arts. “She’s a flutist, playing in school bands for four years,” Simkiss said, “and plays a Irish Pennywhistle (Tin Whistle) which I gave her. She’s learning Japanese and harbors the hope to spend her Junior Year abroad in Japan.”
Ceille, 16, is the second daughter, a Junior at Fuquay-Varina High School. Heavily involved in Wind Ensemble and Marching Band, playing French horn and trumpet, marching with the Mellophone. She’s involved with Fellowship of Christian Athletes on campus. Photo journalism is her great love.
Alec John, 14, is an Eighth Grader at Fuquay-Varina Middle School, who Simkiss says is a budding writer of song lyrics as well as Stephen King novels. He’s played violin in the school orchestra for two years and continues with his Les Paul electric guitar. “Music is a major part of his life,” Simkiss said.
As for his own upbringing, Simkiss has one sibling, an older brother, Jim (James R,) who lives with his family in Colorado Springs, CO.
“My Dad, Frank Simkiss, was born in Newcastle, England and served in the British Eight Army at the end of World War II. My mother, Georgina Ross Robertson (Simkiss) was born of Scottish parents in Chicago, Illinois, and was an elite dance teacher at the Aragon Ballroom. “She had the autograph of every major and minor star of the Big Band era,” he said.
Simkiss has lived in Canada, and on the U.S. Midwest, but mostly for 25 years in Los Angeles. He said he’s lived in Fuquay-Varina for 11 years now.
“I love the one-on-one music teaching experience,” he explained. “And my focus is to teach people ‘how we really play,’ not as the old lesson books would have us learn. To help people learn the skills necessary to play the way we hear in live performances and on CD’s. I developed this style of teaching and my own book because no one was offering this kind of practical style. And I have been happily teaching those lessons for 37 years.”
Simkiss said he’s written something like 120 songs over the years. “I’m trying to set myself up to self-record them over the next few years. I write chord progressions and melodies quite naturally and quickly. Lyrics are a struggle though! Everything comes out in boring prose. As Senior Benedic says in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, “I cannot woo in Festival terms!”
“I have an especial love for singer-songwriters, as it contains everything I most enjoy: songwriting, playing, singing and performing. And whereas in Los Angeles I tended to draw to me lead guitarists, here in North Carolina, I’ve been blessed with many a good writer! Several have gone on to do recordings of their material, and a few have done multiple albums!
“Over the decades I have taught over two thousand guitar students alone. Not to mention countless other students on voice and various other instruments! Some have gone on to careers in music, degrees from College or to teach professionally in schools.
“My chiefest delight in teaching is to see someone’s face light up, and hear them say, ”I can do that!”
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