Anita Jane (Hornstein) Cummings, a Seattle-area pianist, accompanist, and music teacher, died on April 10 at the age of 82.

Anita was born in North Dakota and moved to Wapato, Washington at the age of three along with her parents, John Hornstein and Barbara (Schaan) Hornstein. The eldest of seven children, Anita was a gifted piano player at an early age, performing in many piano recitals and accompanying the local church choir on Sundays. After graduating from Wapato High School in 1955, she attended the University of Washington on a full music scholarship from an anonymous benefactor. There she met her future husband, Roy Cummings, a trumpet player and later instructor of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington. They married in 1960 and eventually moved to Kirkland to raise their family.

Along with being a full-time mother of four, Anita pursued her musical career, teaching at The Cornish College of the Arts, Bellevue Community College, and becoming a sought-after accompanist. She was a member of the Ladies Musical Club and a music theory teacher for the Marrowstone Music Festival. Combining her passions for music and children, Anita ran the Seattle and Bellevue locations of the Yamaha Music School, giving a musical head start to local preschoolers for over 30 years.

Anita was a devoted sister and mother who will be dearly missed by her family. She is preceded in death by her sister Judy (Hornstein) O’Conner and is survived by siblings Mary, Ken, John, Tony, and Joe Hornstein, along with sons Bradley and Bryan Cummings, daughters Alina Ridley and Angela Cummings, and four grandchildren.

Special thanks to the staff at The Gardens at Newcastle for their loving care of Anita during the last few years of her life.

A celebration of Anita will be held at the Marina Room at Carillon Point in Kirkland on Saturday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m.