Meet Sean Simmons

A recent graduate of Furman University with a Bachelor of Music in Violin and Percussion Performance, Sean is an active soloist, educator, and music arranger with credits on countless concerts, recitals, and several major percussion ensemble recordings. Most notably, Sean was a winner of the biannual concerto competition at Furman in 2018, a process culminating in his solo debut with the Furman Symphony Orchestra performing Emmanuel Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings. Sean went on to be selected by faculty to open Furman’s Fall Honors Recital in 2019 with the marimba masterwork Merlin by Andrew Thomas.

A dedicated music educator and arranger, Sean has worked with many high schools in activities ranging from orchestra and concert band to marching percussion (both indoor and outdoor). Most recently, Sean served as Interim Director of Bands and Orchestral Activities at Henrico HS (in Richmond, VA) for the Spring 2020 semester, where his focus was on rebuilding the infrastructure of the music program there and providing meaningful learning opportunities to the students there despite the transition to online learning in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now living in Decatur, GA with his wife Courtney, Sean works as a full-time private lesson instructor and devotes himself to his freelance work composing and arranging for marching band and percussion ensemble with dreams of building a music publishing business through his project known as “The Tune Locker.”

Sean is committed to helping his students achieve their unique goals through lesson plans that are carefully tailored to the individual needs of each student. In this way, Sean seeks to empower his students both as artists and as people to discover and then push their creative limitations and learn life skills along the way. Above all, Sean’s primary goal is to foster strong student-teacher relationships in which the student feels safe and also comfortable engaging in thoughtful discussions about music (especially as it relates to developing a healthy approach to learning it). With a cool and focused blend of personality and dedication to music education, Sean is ready to work with ANY student possessing a desire to bring their music to the next level!