Jennifer Conner

Dr. Jennifer Conner was appointed to the music theory faculty in the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory in 1999. She has also taught theory, composition and history at the Cleveland Institute of Music since the late 1980's and heads the Suzuki theory program there. Her curriculum for teaching music theory to the young, “Foundations in Music,” developed for the Cleveland Institute of Music, has in recent years gained popularity with a number of educators around the country. She regularly conducts seminars on the topic of teaching music theory to young children.

A composer as well as an educator, Conner is a native of California where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa cum laude from the University of California at Irvine. She was a recipient of both their prestigious Regents’ Scholarship and the Presidential Fellowship Grant for the performance of her music. She received her graduate degrees (Master of Music '85, Doctor of Musical Arts '92) in composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music studying under Donald Erb. She pursued further summer studies at the Aspen school with George Tsontakis and in the Center for Advanced Compositional Studies with Bernard Rands.

A member of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Cleveland Composers Guild, her music has been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra and the Akron, Canton, Grand Rapids and Oregon Symphonies as well as by numerous chamber ensembles and soloists. Her music has been performed both nationally and internationally and has been recorded on both the Capstone and Pro Organa labels. She is presently published through Imaginings Publishing Company.