Annette Colledge’s Lasting Impact on Cache Valley’s Youth

For decades, the rhythm of the changing seasons has carried with it the sound of piano keys at Colledge Piano Studio in Providence, where Annette Colledge has opened her home — and the doors to music — for hundreds of Cache Valley children and youth.

Annette has taught piano professionally for 43 years and currently teaches 70 students. Each fall begins a new year of learning, and most days Annette begins teaching early in the morning before school and then every afternoon after school until evening. Right now, Annette is even teaching children of former students. She admits 70 students can feel like a lot at times, but says it’s rewarding to open the world of music to young people.

“I don’t teach because I expect my students to major in music — that’s never been a requirement,” she said. “I teach so they’ll learn to recognize beauty in the increasingly stressful world they live in, and so they’ll have more love and more gentleness and goodness in their lives.”

Annette is passionate about sharing the positive impact music can have on youth. She often gives presentations about the effects of music in education, which include benefits in learning other languages, improving memory, focusing attention, improving physical coordination, and even reducing stress and relieving anxiety and depression. On the education front, Annette says studies show students who participate in music score higher on standardized tests.

Music has made a profound impact in Annette’s life. She was born and raised in Logan and graduated from Logan High School, she started taking piano lessons at age 8. She said she enjoyed it, but it was in junior high that it became a lifeline for her.

“I had really low self-esteem, and I was often bullied,” she said. “When I would come home from school I would pour out all my feelings on the piano, and I would play and play. I realized that that was something I did have control of in my life.”

Annette says she improved in her skills, outgrew her teacher at age 15, and decided she was done with lessons. That changed when concert pianist and Julliard graduate, Irene Perry, moved into her neighborhood from New York City. She performed a Liszt Concert Etude in church and Annette was hooked.

“I was so enthralled and mesmerized that I decided right then that I would do whatever it took to learn it,” Annette said. “I started taking lessons with her a week later and that’s what started my path to music as a profession.”

Annette studied at Utah State University (USU) with another Julliard graduate, Gary Amano. Because Dr. Perry focused on bringing out the emotion of music and Professor Amano was a technician who focused on developing technique, Annette feels she had the best of both worlds and enjoyed excellent training. She practiced five hours a day, every day as a student and a highlight of her USU experience was performing Rachmaninoff with the Utah State Symphony.

She still does some performing, but Annette finds her greatest satisfaction in teaching and the bonds she’s formed with students over the years. Several of them have gone on to become teachers themselves and to major in music. One former student is currently the pianist for Ballet West and has also played for the Utah Symphony.

The biggest change she’s seen in her students since opening her studio in the 1980s, is their lack of free time. She sees that their time is filled, running from early in the morning to late at night without a minute to themselves. She believes music can still bring relief.

“I find that kids now are just so involved in so many things that it can really increase their anxiety; there’s so much required,” she said. “And I feel music is just a nice out. It’s a way to step out of all of that and take a deep breath and relax and get your head out of all the other things that are expected.”

She believes music is something her students will have their entire lives, and it’s something she’s stressed with her own children. She has four children who all started with the piano and then chose instruments to play of their own. She has eight grandchildren — all grandsons — and is teaching one now.

Annette and her husband Brent have been married for 38 years and have lived in their Providence home for 33 years. They enjoy traveling and recently returned from a European trip that included a visit to the Central Cemetery in Vienna where some of history's great composers are buried. It was thrilling, but Annette loves to come home to her students. She says it’s rewarding to watch a student get excited when they discover the difference between playing the notes and playing the music.

“Anyone can learn how to play the piano, but not everyone will become a pianist,” she said. “I want my students to get past just the notes and rhythms to discover the beauty and emotion that lies beyond that and then it just opens up a whole other area of music that they didn’t know was there.”