Joy Simmonds

Joy Simmonds is a cellist and retired clinical social worker who has spent a lifetime weaving music, education, and community service into a single thread. A full-time resident of Peterborough, she brings to the Kawartha Chamber Music Collective a warmth and dedication earned through decades of work with children and families.

Joy's relationship with the cello began unexpectedly, when the instrument was placed in her hands during a grade five music class. Though a long hiatus followed her school years, she never lost sight of her love for it. It was her son Danny's cello lessons that drew her back to the instrument in earnest, and a CAMMAC music camp that changed everything. That first experience of communal music making was, by her own description, transformative, and she has not looked back since. She has performed in orchestras, chamber groups, and pit bands for musical theatre, finding in chamber music a particularly natural home.

Outside of music, Joy taught for fifteen years in inner-city elementary schools in Toronto before moving to Peterborough, where she trained teachers at Trent University's School of Education. Longing to return to direct work with children and families, she retrained as a clinical social worker and practiced as a counsellor until her retirement in 2019. She has served on the board of the Kawartha Youth Orchestra and played a meaningful role in developing the Upbeat! program, an initiative she regards as a culmination of a career dedicated to improving the lives of young people.

For Joy, music has always been about showing up, listening carefully, and making something greater together than any one person could alone.