Dr. Lynn Worcester Jones

https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2024/05/pianist-educator-and-scholar-lynn-worcester-jones-joins-ccms-faculty.html

Biography | 2026 

Dr. Lynn Worcester Jones, NCTM, is Associate Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Chair of Secondary Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. An international clinician and speaker, she presents on music advocacy, piano works by women composers, self-efficacy in pianists, group piano, teaching strategies for early beginners through advanced students, Generation Z learners, and artificial intelligence in piano teaching. In 2024 she was named Teacher of the Year by both the Tennessee Music Teachers Association and the Chattanooga Music Teachers Association. She serves on the Editorial Board of Piano Magazine, previously served two terms on the Editorial Committee of American Music Teacher, and has twice mentored winning Collegiate Connections proposals for the Frances Clark Center. She is the author of the forthcoming book Teaching Piano to the AI Generation (Piano Education Press, 2027).

Beginning her piano studies at the age of four with her mother, Eiki Paik Worcester, Dr. Jones has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout the United States, Italy, and Austria. Her performances include works from the standard repertoire, and she has also championed works by living women composers in her research and on stage. Recent concert programs, for example, have included works by female composers—Mazzoli, Boulanger, Poldowski, Clarke, Urner, Beglarian, Ruehr, Hensel, and others—as well as works by Mozart, Liszt, Villa-Lobos, Schubert, Ginastera, Glass, Cage, and a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Dr. Jones holds a DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, alongside degrees from Baylor University and California State University, Fullerton where she studied with Jane Magrath, Barbara Fast, Lesley McAllister, Krassimira Jordan, Martha Baker-Jordan, Eduardo Delgado, and Robert Watson.

Prior to joining CCM, Dr. Jones served as Associate Professor and Keyboard Area Coordinator at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), where she developed the region’s first Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy program, led significant curriculum innovations, and built a thriving piano program known for its excellence and community engagement. Her dedication to teaching and research earned her the prestigious UTC Outstanding Research & Creative Achievement Award (2023-2024) and early tenure and promotion in 2023.

As a mentor, she has guided students to presentations at the MTNA Collegiate Symposium and MTNA National Conference, including five graduate presentations in 2025; to awards at the Knoxville International Piano Competition and Tennessee Music Teachers Association collegiate competitions; and to university concerto competitions and festivals such as the Amalfi Coast Music Festival and the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. Former students have gone on to faculty positions, including at an R1 university, and to scholarships and assistantships at leading graduate programs.

Jones has given more than seventy workshops around the country since 2020, including at the MTNA National Conference, the College Music Society National Conference, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the MTNA Group Piano and Pedagogy Forum, and local workshops. Recent sessions address autonomy in piano study, group instruction for early childhood, engaging Generation Z and Alpha musicians, intermediate piano concertos, and the opportunities and challenges of teaching piano in the age of artifical intelligence. She has published nine peer-reviewed articles in American Music Teacher, Piano Magazine, Clavier Companion, and Piano Pedagogy Forum, on topics including diversifying piano literature, contemporary techniques for intermediate pianists, self-efficacy, extended techniques in education piano repertoire, micro-learning videos for home practice, and happiness. Her article “The Good Life: Is Teaching the Path to Happiness?” appeared in the April/May 2026 issue of American Music Teacher and draws on the Harvard Study of Adult Development. She is also a multimedia contributor to the Frances Clark Center for the Inspiring Artistry and From the Artist’s Bench series.

Lynn is completing her first book, Teaching Piano to the AI Generation, on the uses and limits of artificial intelligence in piano teaching which will be available in Summer 2027.