Marianna Parnas-Simpson is a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, Russia. She founded Kamerton, an award-winning St Petersburg girls’ choir which she directed for ten years before coming to the United States. Since 1999, she has been teaching at Parker Elementary School, an Houston ISD magnet school for music, where she has developed the choral programme from 30 students to over 250 students. In 2005, she was named Teacher of the Year. From 2008 to 2010, Marianna served as the Artistic Director of the American Boychoir summer programme in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 2006, Marianna founded the Treble Choir of Houston at Christ Church Cathedral. Her choirs have performed at Carnegie Hall with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and have been selected to perform for the Organization of American Kodály Educators, the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association, and Texas Music Educators Association convention.

Marianna is in demand as a clinician and guest conductor, offering masterclasses and conducting honour choirs throughout the United States and abroad. Additionally, she is a founder member of the Houston Chamber Choir.