helping to understand the human experience
Anna Coppa – helping to understand the human experience
Anna Coppa was born in Scarlets Mill, a small town about 50 miles from Philadelphia, PA. Her large family include parents Jessica and Justin Coppa along with three sisters and two brothers. The entire family of Italian heritage is very musically oriented. Anna’s Aunt Stein and Uncle David were songwriters, her maternal grandmother was the church organist, and Anna participated in a number of choirs and music groups.
Skipper Kripitz, Anna Coppa, Tim Mayer perform at the Monday Night Jazz Jam at the Key West Cultural Center/Legion Post 168
Anna studied music most of her life, learning piano at an early age. She was always writing short stories and poetry that sometimes turned into songs. Her songwriting began at age 11 and she continued to seriously write songs through high school. One of her early songs, Wedding Feast, resulted from a first love and breakup. Anna is now recording this and several other songs.
Growing up Catholic, her parents encouraged her to attend a Catholic college where she was able to continue the two great loves of her life, music and literature. She attended Ave Maria University near Naples, Florida, graduating in 2022 with a double major in music composition and literature. She was almost immediately offered a teaching position at St. Mary’s Basilica School in Key West.
During her interview she fell in love with Key West. Today, Anna is finishing her fourth-year teaching at St. Mary’s Basilica and has enjoyed teaching English Literature to all high school grade levels. She enjoys her students, teaching, and living in Key West. She says having the responsibility of teaching young people, being charged with their understanding of literature and life has been her greatest and fulfilling experience. Surprisingly, St. Mary’s has a music program in the lower grades but not in high school. Anna can’t help sharing music with her students. She keeps a guitar in her classroom and has given a number of her students their first guitar lesson.
Anna Coppa and Martin Sedlak perform with great music chemistry.
Experiencing so much live music in Key West was a pleasant surprise for Anna. She feels we have become spoiled with live music. Initially, when going downtown Anna loved the musicians but did not think she would be able to fit in with most of the typical club music repertoires. For the most part, the Duval Street venues have larger crowds and need to attract tourists and get a lot of requests for Top 40 covers. One of the local groups told me they know how to perform over 1,000 different songs.
Anna discovered the Little Room Jazz Club with more blues and jazz music mixed with original sounds. It was a comfortable venue for Anna. She was able to sit in with several of the local musicians. She has since been invited on stage at several other venues with a number of different Key West musicians. Performing with Channing Lynn, James King, Seth Kessel, Larry Smith, and fellow educator/vocalist/artist Christine Cordone has been illuminating and great fun. 
At first, Anna thought she enjoyed performing solo because it fit the style of her original songs but she has discovered how much fun it is to perform with others. Lately, she has been appearing with Martin Sedlak and the amazing sound of his violin.
One special highlight was performing with Skipper Kripitz at the Annual Customs House Christmas Party. She performed along with the 20-piece End of the Road Ukulele Band, Larry Smith and Christine Cordone. She sang one of her published original songs, “Merry Christmas From Key West” and then, “Santa Baby”.
Journey Blue Heaven and Anna Coppa two amazing young singer/songwriters.
Anna has been attracted to Viv Wine Bistro, Blue Heaven, Andy’s Cabana, and more recently, Larry Smith’s Monday Night Jazz Jam at the American Legion Hall/Key West Cultural Center on Emma Street in Bahama Village. She appreciates their beautiful original music sounds.
James King, AnnaCoppa, and Martin Sedlak trio at Viv Wine Bistro.
Having written songs since age 11, she has approximately 70-80 (of her 150 original songs) that she wants to share in public. She recently performed a few of her originals at Blue Heaven and wasn’t sure she connected with the audience. When taking a break, someone asked her about one of her songs, “Season of Mangoes” (Key West inspired) she was thrilled.
A singer-songwriter is a very vulnerable profession sharing parts of yourself, sometimes autobiographically, even the melody can reflect part of you. According to Anna, as a musician artist, you have been given a special privilege and responsibility to help the audience understand, through song, the human experience in a palpable way. No need for false modesty, only acceptance and humility.
As a teacher, you never know what seeds of human connection you are planting. The seeds may sprout later and you may never know. Recently, Anna taught her freshman class a French song written in the 1800s “Jeunes Fillettes”, about young love and life, and wasn’t sure if any of them really understood its meaning or much appreciated it. Later that day, as she walked down the hallway, she heard one of her students singing the song. She was thrilled – again.
Anna Coppa and Martin Sedlak together at Viv Wine Bistro.
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