Joanne Klassen Andersson

 1941 -

Joanne Andersson, band director at Canadian University College in the final six years of her career, retired in 2007. A 1963 graduate in music education from Union College, she would teach in three colleges and universities, seven academies, and two other schools in the Seventh-day Adventist school system during a career that spanned more than four decades.

Following graduation from UC, Klassen taught for the next ten years at Ozark, Grand Ledge, and Georgia-Cumberland academies. While teaching at GLA in Michigan, she completed an M.Mus. at Andrews University in 1968.

In 1973 she became band director at Kingsway College in Canada. During the next five years, her bands received the highest ratings for four consecutive years in the Kiwanis Music Festival. Following her marriage to Knut Andersson, she returned to teaching, becoming an adjunct faculty member at La Sierra University in 1981. In the next seven years she directed the LSU band for two years and taught flute and music classes.

Andersson resumed full-time teaching in 1988, leading the band programs at Eldorado Junior and Okanagan Adventist academies before returning to Kingsway College in 1994. Following five years at KC, she taught at Fraser Valley Academy for two years and in 2001 assumed leadership of the band program at Canadian University College.

A flutist, Andersson became involved in music at a very young age. As a child she learned to play the piano, accordion, flute, and organ. A frequent performer, she has continued to be involved in music since she retired.

ds/2013

Source: Resume; Conversation/Interview, 2007; additional information, May 2013; Personal Knowledge.