page_title: Capitola Dickerson
section_title: Music educator
hierarchical_section_title: Capitola Dickerson / Music educator
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial service for Capitola Dickerson (1913-2012) at St. John's church in Summit, New Jersey, on September 22, 2012 (correct date). Student Samuel J. Sulcer performing at the piano while singer Bill Robinson is in the background.
context_page_description: Capitola Leodra Dickerson, also known as Cappie Dickerson, was an American piano instructor in Summit, New Jersey and graduate of the Juilliard School in Manhattan who was notable for teaching several generations of students. She was revered by local authorities for her volunteer service and civil rights contributions and community leadership. Some of her pupils have become renowned such as Tom Varner and Lawton C. Johnson, and she was friends with renowned jazz singer Bill Robinson. In 2011, she was presented with a Key to the City by Summit mayor Jordan Glatt. According to business executive Frank Bolden, she was a "quiet, unselfish person" who lived by the Golden Rule of treating others as one wished to be treated oneself.
context_section_description: Dickerson taught piano to thousands of students over a period of seventy-eight years. She emphasized precision, sticking strictly to piano compositions as written, and practice; in 2004, she was quoted in the Los Angeles Times for stressing the benefits of practice. She taught New Jersey preschoolers in Cranford  and Millburn and she taught music to the hearing impaired. According to one estimate, her students live in all fifty states in the United States.
  Dickerson taught some notable students. She taught local resident Lawton C. Johnson of Summit who became a church organist as well as a locally recognized educational administrator; in 2004, the Summit Board of Education decided to rename the middle school after him. She taught Graeme Cowen and composer Carolyn Schmidt, who became director of the musical group named the Hickory Tree Singers. She taught piano to New Jersey's French hornist Tom Varner who formed the Tom Varner Quartet. Varner wrote "I loved my teacher Ms. Capitola Dickerson–she would play 78s of Art Tatum for me."
  Dickerson loved teaching children, including kindergartners and preschool children. She taught music to hearing impaired children at the Summit Speech School for thirty years. She taught preschoolers at the Westfield Day Care Center from 1978 to 2000, teaching rhythm, movement, songs and music appreciation to thousands of children. Sally Rogers, one of her pupils, wrote: 
  "I remember singing in kindergarten and how important that was. And I also remember a woman in our town named Capitola Dickerson. I went to one class she did at the Y where she was sharing rhythm instruments with us. When she handed me a tambourine, her manner communicated kindness and inclusion. It may seem hard to believe because of how young I was, but she changed my life. I actually sought her out ten years ago and called her up and put her on the CMN quilt. She respected me, shy kid that I was, and modeled how to invite children to come into music their own way."
caption: Piano student Samuel J. Sulcer performs at the memorial service for Dickerson in 2012.
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