About Our Teachers

Karen Simpson, owner and founder of the Music Clinic, has been teaching music in New Hampshire since 1976. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, she holds a degree in Music Education and has been a Board-Certified Music Therapist. She teaches voice, guitar, piano, violin, and many other instruments as well as theory, songwriting, and conducting. She has directed a number of choirs and performed as a vocalist throughout New England. Karen has also judged local singing and karaoke competitions and the 2006 New Hampshire Idol competition.

Mary Divers specializes in brass and woodwinds. She holds a Bachelors degree in Music Education from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire and a Masters degree in Music Education from Westchester University in Pennsylvania. She conducts the Ashland Community Choir and the Joyful Noise Bell Choir, and she has been teaching since 1975. Mary also conducts the New Horizons Band of the Lakes Region, which is sponsored by and rehearses at the Music Clinic.

Maryam Khajavi-Cullen specializes in piano and music theory. She holds a degree from the Royal College of Music of London, England. She is an accomplished pianist and experienced teacher having taught in both Europe and the United States since 1981.

Bill Noland specializes in guitar.  He has been playing since 1980.  First picking up a guitar at age 13, Bill studied privately for 4 years under Robert Fiester in Maryland and later with Andre Maquera and Nate Comp in New Hampshire.  Some of the bands Bill has played with over the last 15 years include Tempus Fugit, Marauder, C4, Nightfall, Group Therapy, and SunKing.  Influences range from David Gilmore to Steve Morse to Brent Mason to Stevie Ray Vaughn.  In addition to playing guitar professionally Bill is also an experienced sound technician.  On a side note he holds a degree in Business Administration.

Laurie McDaniel has performed in over forty theatrical productions in New Hampshire and California. She was an actress at Portsmouth's Theatre-by-the-Sea before graduating from Plymouth State University where she studied Drama and French Education. After graduation, Laurie moved to Santa Barbara where she played a dozen leading roles in many theaters. Laurie also attended The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, and later founded the Tujunga Theatre Company, producing plays in a hilltop mansion. Laurie has devoted much of her professional life to teaching Theatre, Acting, English, French, and Spanish to students from childhood to adult, and is a skilled and enthusiastic educator and performer.