Anne - Marie Katemopoulos' Obituary
Anne-Marie Katemopoulos
October 20, 1966 - March 29, 2023
Obituary for Anne-Marie Katemopoulos
“How Much Do We Love You?...”
Our Beloved “AM,” one of our Family’s cherished nicknames for you, and “AMK,” as you liked to sign your name.
You weren’t supposed to leave us so soon, so suddenly. You were stolen from us, your Family. now just your two surviving siblings, Maureen and Kathryn and your Community, and we are all Inconsolable.
You were “Miss K/ Ms. K/ Ms. Katemopoulos” to your adoring students (Your “Kids”), and to the Community at Abraham Lincoln High School For The Performing Arts in San Jose, California, where you spent and devoted the last 32 years of your brilliant, incredibly talented, award-winning, gifted and celebrated, short life.
Music has been in your blood since you were a baby. We have photos of you, at several months old, sitting in your baby carriage, and rocking back and forth to The Beatles' music. Even then, you knew your Passion and your Destiny.
When you were learning to speak, and someone asked you your name, you proudly replied “Handy De Ree,” the closest you could get to your real name.
And when The Pope visited Hong Kong, you endearingly referred to him as “The Poke,” and called our air-conditioner the “air-inditioner.”
Over the years, on Christmas mornings, our favorite holiday, you excitedly donned your Santa’s Elf hat, and distributed presents to our Family. You took your job very seriously, and excelled at it, as always.
Then the day after Christmas, you, Maureen and Eileen woke up at the crack of dawn, spending hours at the stores to scoop up all the gems that caught your eyes.
You were beaming with pride, when you bought your first car, your beloved tan Mazda, and went to pick up your sister, Kathryn, at the airport before Christmas.
Our family considered you a "Renaissance Woman," because you excelled at so many things.
You were an "Early Adopter," having purchased and mastered a personal Apple computer when they first came on the market. You paved the way for our Family to be computer-savvy and dedicated Apple fans.
In fact, we called you the "Computer Guru." Mum, Dad and Maureen would often say they were waiting for the "Guru" to visit, to help with any computer glitches.
Your compassionate love of animals manifested itself in our Family’s adoption of rescue and stray cats, most recently Gidget (yours), Patch (Eileen’s) and Quinn, Ron and Harry (Maureen’s).
You were also a very talented painter, photographer, home cook, gardener, and were very handy around the house.
As a passionate and avid fan of Harry Potter and Disney, you have an enviable collection of Harry Potter and Mickey Mouse memorabilia at our San Jose home.
Your sense of fun, kindness and humor shone through, keeping you young at heart, and moving Mum to exclaim that it was hard to tell you apart from your students, especially when you tied your hair back in a ponytail!
These are just a fraction of our Family’s beautiful memories of you, our “Rosebud,” as Dad lovingly whispered to you, when you were a baby.
You Lived Your Life with Grace and Courage
You taught us to Persevere, to aim for Excellence, and for the Stars. You were a gentle spirit, so tender, so sensitive, yet so brave, when faced with all life’s challenges, of which there were many, but you faced them all with Grace and Courage, never complaining or giving up.
You filled our lives with Sunshine, with Love, with Kindness, with Compassion, with Tenderness, with Wisdom, with Inspiration, with Joy, with Generosity, with Humor, with Great Sacrifice, and with Music.
These are just some of the loving Tributes to you, from your School Community:
“Ms. K's legacy has blazed a path for not only performing arts students (past, present and future), but also for all students in Lincoln High School to stretch far and high to new heights. I'm honored to be acquainted with Ms. K and I shall always have this in mind: Tell her to have a nice day ❤”️
“Ms. K was the best teacher I ever had. While the choir program won’t be the same without her...”
“I will always remember Ms.K as the best teacher I’ve ever had ! She made my high school experience the best days of my life. Room 91 was my safe space and with out her I wouldn’t have met one of my best friends! Or help me be the person I am today. Ms. K helped me in so many ways as a teenager going through struggles and I couldn’t be any more grateful. I will forever miss you Ms. K ! And I miss all the times you would tell me not to sing so loud ♥”
“It feels so weird that Ms. K is no longer teaching, let alone with us. She was a force. She was the teacher I spent the most time with at Lincoln. I graduated last year. And I left to middle college during the pandemic. I haven't seen her since we left because of covid. it hurts that she's gone.”
“...I wish I had had the opportunity to know Ms. K, but I know her students had her as a teacher, friend and cheerleader. Rest in Peace, Ms. K.”
“Thank you Ms K for all the time and love that you gave to Antonio and all the kids, you made his experience at Lincoln very special, and I had so much joy too hearing them sing! We will never forget you! You live on in all of them!”
*
“AMK and Room 91 forever ❤”
Perhaps the best way to preserve your Legacy, AM, is in your own words, from your https://amkmusic.com website:
...I was born in Hong Kong and spent the first ten years of my life there [attending The German Swiss International School], 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...
And from your https://lhschoirssj.com website:
Anne-Marie Katemopoulos has taught at Abraham Lincoln High School for the past thirty-one years, where she teaches the choirs and is the vocal director for the musical theatre program. She is a graduate of San José State University
with a B.A. in Music Performance (Voice) and an M.A. in Choral Conducting. Miss Katemopoulos is the recipient of numerous accolades and awards, most notably the CMEA Pearson-Silver Burdett Choral Music Educator Award (2016) CMEA Bay Section Outstanding Choral Music Educator Award (2017) and the CMEA Bay Section Outstanding Music Educator Award (2020), and has twice been nominated as Teacher of the Year at Lincoln.
She loves traveling, photography, and gardening, and her guilty pleasure, Facebook...
These were just some of the roles you held at Abraham Lincoln High School:
* Music Boosters Club Administrator
* Chairperson of The Music Department
* Teacher
* Choral Conductor For All Of Lincoln’s Choir Groups
* Vocal Director For All Of Lincoln’s Musical Theatre Productions
* Mentor
* Colleague
* Musician
* Friend
* 24/7 Dedicated Fundraiser
Despite your hectic schedule, you even devoted extra time to encouraging your students to read, and learn how to ring bells!
Over the years, you have taken your students to the “Edinburgh Festival Fringe,” as well as on European and U.S. tours and competitions.
You taught your students to aim high, to reach for the stars, and made sure they experienced unforgettable, and possibly, once-in-a-lifetime performances and trips to Disneyland, Carnegie Hall with National Concerts, and NYC’s “Great White Way,” where they got to take in the latest Broadway Shows, and all the wonders and excitement of “The City That Never Sleeps.”
And did you EVER love Broadway Shows! Whenever you visited New York City, whether to spend time with your sister, Kathryn, or to inspire your students to broaden their horizons, you immersed yourself in as many Broadway shows as humanly possible, often two a day (more if mathematically possible), when visiting!
Only the Pandemic put a halt to these NYC trips.
Ironically, your last Performing Arts Department’s Field Trip just before you were stolen from us was to “Disney Imagination Campus,” where you conducted your Choir on February 23, 2023 (four photos at the link below).
https://band.us/band/77423610/post/170
♡ On April 18, 2023, The City Council of San Jose paid Tribute to you with “An Adjournment in Memorium.”
Your Tribute was announced by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan during the “Orders Of The Day.”
The Meeting Adjournment was brought forward by District 2 Council Member Sergio Jimenez:
HYPERLINK "https://sanjose.granicus.com/player/clip/13762?view_id=52&redirect=true "https://sanjose.granicus.com/player/clip/13762?view_id=52&redirect=true
♡ On May 10, 2024, The Lincoln High School Foundation dedicated your Classroom 91 in Your Memory:
https://www.facebook.com/lincolnhighschoolfoundation/posts/anne-marie-katemopoulos-classroom-dedication-ceremony-in-room-91-may-10-2024-pas/956025086527729/
You made us all SO proud. We were your biggest fans.
You wrote on your https://amkmusic.com website:
A new year, a new devotion
The Gratitude Journal
1/1/2021
For many years now, I have recognized that life is to be spent living in gratitude for my many blessings. A few years back, I spent a year in daily posts on Facebook, expressing my thanks: for inspirational lives well-lived, for inventions large and small, and for kindnesses, both personal and large-scale. As we begin 2021, I knew it would be the ideal time to return to this journey. Although I have never stopped being grateful—a nightly ritual I share with my sister Maureen, for example, is to express three things each for which we are thankful—I have not put my thoughts in written form. But I also know that the power of the written word is powerful. Time to start again. I'll try my best to make this a daily devotional. From past experience, I know some days will be but a few words, others a barrage of thoughts and explanations. Regardless, they will share the goal of expressing my appreciation for all the gifts that I receive. May this journey inspire you to find the gratitude in your life as well.--AMK
You adored travel, and aspired to visit every continent and all 50 states in the US, as well as every Disney Park and cruise!
It breaks our hearts that you were stolen from us before you were able to fulfill your travel dreams...
We are forever grateful for you, and to you, our Angel Anne-Marie, and for your incredible Legacy, which will live on until the end of time, in your Work, and in everyone you touched.
And now, in your own words to Paul, our beloved son and brother, who left us in 1997, way too soon:
Aloha and auf Wiedersehen, Anne-Marie
Never goodbye ~ only until we meet again...
Anne-Marie is survived by her sisters, Maureen and Kathryn.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Lincoln High School Foundation’s Scholarship Fund in Anne-Marie’s Memory, to support future Lincoln High School Performing Arts Students.
https://lincolnhighfoundation.org/
The Goal is $20,000
https://www.gofundme.com/f/annemarie-katemopoulos
Anne-Marie’s Selfless Dedication and Contributions to Her Life’s Work ...Priceless
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