About Ann

Ann Buys, or Mom as I like to call her, grew up playing the piano. She would have played the family piano from sun up to sun down if given the chance, but that wasn't always possible in a modest sized home shared with five siblings. My Grandpa was the Chief of Police in their small town and liked peace and quiet when he was home. That ruled out any piano practice during the evening hours. Not playing the piano wasn't an option for Mom, so she started practicing at the church. People took notice and pretty soon she was playing the organ for her congregation's Sunday services. Practicing piano and playing the organ was how she spent much of her time as a child.

She grew up and continued to play the piano. She got married, had children, and decided to start teaching piano herself. She taught in our home and I grew up listening to hours and hours of piano music. I think I have a pretty good ear because of it, even if there were times I wished for the peace and quiet of Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mom liked to compose music and decided to submit a collection of Christmas piano arrangements to Kjos for publishing. A little while later she received a letter back from the publisher. She opened the letter expecting a polite rejection and found that they wanted to move forward with publishing her book! I remember how excited I was for her! Once the final drafts of the book arrived my siblings and I would often ask her to play from it. Listening to Mom play the piano is special.

Mom continued to teach and compose and had several more books published over the years by various music publishers. She also composed music for her students to learn, and created theory worksheets and games to help with their education. One day she decided to start a website where she could host all of her music and piano teaching resources. This seemed like a great idea, other than the fact that Mom was one of the least tech savvy individuals I knew at the time. Somehow that didn't stop her and she launched her website with some help from my sister and brother-in-law. It was a great resource for a large number of teachers for many years. The site grew and she continued to publish her work online at a fast pace, but that pace eventually had to slow when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Mom took that challenge head on like she did everything else in life. Eventually the cancer went into remission. Mom continued to teach, write, and play music.

She's now retired but continues to write music as well as mystery novels, her newest passion! She's full of creativity and ambition and she's an inspiration to our family. Other than myself, each of her children are quite musically talented. The others would say I am too, but it's not even close. Unlike my Mom though, I am quite savvy with tech and digital media and wanted to do something to help get her music out there where it can be played by anyone who appreciates it.

Welcome to SunrisePiano.com. I hope it's a resource to help you learn or teach the piano. I know I have my own favorite pieces on the site that I enjoy listening to with my daughter. When she's old enough to start lessons herself, I know where we'll begin.

-Andy