Jennifer Wenger is a pianist performing locally and teaching piano for the Copper Country Suzuki School. She carries a Bachelor of Science in Piano Pedagogy from Northland International University, Dunbar, Wisconsin, where she studied with Jonathan Ensminger, and a Masters of Music in Keyboard Pedagogy and Performance from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, where she studied with Tian Ying and Rosalina Sackstein. Wenger has lived in China for five years, during which time she taught English as a Foreign Language at Shanghai University, studied Chinese independently, and also traveled to Korea a few times. While traveling to Adelaide, Australia, with her husband during the spring of 2018, she had the opportunity to study piano with concert pianist Anna Goldsworthy. She has explored the chamber music repertoire for two summers as a participant in the Apple Hill Chamber Music Workshop, New Hampshire, and has been a recipient of the Michigan Council of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Professional Development Mini-Grant. She has begun learning the Taubman Technique through Taubman Seminars at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and workshops with pianist Angelin Chang. Locally, she collaborates with pianist and flutist Susan Byykkonen in presenting piano duo and duet literature and flute literature. She also accompanies for local church congregations, high school choirs, and solo and ensemble, and serves as the accompanist for the Copper Country Suzuki Association. Wenger’s performance style focuses on more intimate settings where the audience has liberty to interact with the performer and the music. Wenger desires to explore strategies for promoting local and regional artists, to initiate interdisciplinary arts projects, and to further explore collaborative music, particularly in small ensembles.
As a classically-trained pianist, Jennifer’s teaching emphasizes the art of piano performance. This means that all instruction in the mechanics of music-making, such as reading music, technique, and theory, is guided by the aspiration of communicating the aesthetic message of the music. This lofty objective includes the following goals:
– To understand and enjoy music. To see the importance of music to life and society.
– To read music well and understand the terminology and structure of music. To become fluent in traditional interpretive practices applied to Western Art Music (Classical Music).
– To understand the building blocks of music (music theory) in order to analyze music being learned and to improvise and play by ear.
– To gain confidence in achieving goals and conquering musical complexities, thus, developing skills that can be applied to other disciplines and life itself.
All of these elements will be taken into consideration as a learning program is crafted for each individual student, even those that do not have a predisposition toward classical art music.