Teacher Profile: Jenna Turner
About Jenna Turner
Jenna Black uses music education as an opportunity to teach healthy coping skills, passion, goal achievement, non-judgmental thinking and confidence building as well as the fundamentals! She embraces the student's journey to finding the artistic style that speaks to each individual. "I believe everyone is an artist, but not everyone uses a paint brush and it is the pursuit of exploring the arts to find each person's muse that transcends them to their unique artistic freedom." She also states that once a person finds their passion, their whole life transforms and it's like getting to watch a rocket blast off into the sky. "I navigate my student's lessons with musical education followed by their choice of repertoire, therefore allowing a balance of fundamentals and their own inspiration because learning music requires both skills."
Jenna Black studied at Metro State University, as a single mother, with top marks and references. She majored in Flute working with Dr. Nancy Andrews for five years, who studied under the one and only, Marcel Moyse. Jenna has a direct line of education from the world's most talented French flute players in history! "I majored in flute because I was good at it, but my guilty pleasure was and always has been Piano!" She started playing piano during Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and it quickly became her obsession and in college, Dr. Fernanda Nieto attempted to convince Jenna to major in Piano instead, which she greatly considered. Jenna graduated all of her piano classes and believes it is a wonderful entry into the world of music as it is easily, "black and white." While in college, Jenna performed under Dr. David Kish as a first chair flutist for four years and she also worked as the Production Manager for three years running about 300 concerts a year. She has developed long lasting relationships with all the amazing professionals who teach and perform in the two concert halls. Even though Jenna's degree was in musical education, after college, she still had professional performances including orchestral work.
More importantly, Jenna is a mother of two children. Her first child required special needs after he was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. Her son was her first student and now he loves to play Chopin and Franz Liszt and has in many ways exceeded her own abilities at such a young age. "I recognized his unique gifts by learning how his unique brain works! Once we understood what his mind required, he easily did the rest. Everyone has a specific way they naturally learn, it's important to start there and fill in the other techniques to create a well- balanced education, but we always start with our strengths." She knows that the learning music of any kind is challenging and we must love and accept the process to gain the musical freedom we desire. "What I learned teaching my own children has made me a better teacher than anything I learned in higher education." Connecting with her students is the most important element of being a great teacher. She looks forward to working with those who struggle with any form of mental health or special education needs as she knows that music transcends and even provides treatment over all these life changing obstacles. She believes it to be a new form of musical therapy she calls, Musical Behavioral Therapy.
"Music expresses that which cannot be said, and on which is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo, French Romantic Writer of the 1800's