Dr. Cynthia Johnston Turner

Conn Selmer Educational Clinician

Odds were against Cynthia Johnston Turner becoming a musician let alone a professor of music in higher education. Born in a small rural town in Ontario, Canada, no one in her family played an instrument or sang, although there were rumors that her great paternal grandfather was a mean mandolinist. Cynthia asked for a piano for Christmas when she was 8 years old, and because it was all her parents could afford, she received a toy electric keyboard from which she was pretty much inseparable until she started the ukulele in grade school. When she picked up the clarinet and saxophone in middle school, a love affair and a career were born.

The first in her family to attend university, Cynthia Johnston Turner received her B.Mus and B.Ed from Queen’s University, a M.Ed. at the University of Victoria and a D.M.A. (Conducting) from the Eastman School of Music. She has received numerous teaching, research, and leadership awards in Canada and the United States.

From 2014-2021, Cynthia was Director of Bands, Professor of Music, and Artistic Director of “CCE” at the Hodgson School of Music, University of Georgia where she conducted the Hodgson Wind Ensemble, led the MM and DMA programs in conducting, provided strategic leadership in diversity, equity, and belonging initiatives as well as innovative curriculum, and oversaw the entire band program including the 400+ member Redcoat Marching Band. The Hodgson Wind Ensemble performed at the CBDNA National Convention in 2017. She is a sponsored clinician with Conn-Selmer. Cynthia has guest conducted bands, new music ensembles, and orchestras at several universities and conservatories as well as state honor bands in the United States and abroad. She continues to actively promote commissions by today’s leading and emerging composers around the world with a focus on underrepresented voices. She has been invited to present her research with teaching and technology, innovative rehearsal techniques, and service-learning and music performance at numerous conferences nationally and internationally. She is published in such journals as Interdisciplinary Humanities, International Journal of the Humanities, Music Educators Journal, NAfME "Teaching Music," NewMusicUSA.org, Journal of the World Association of Bands and Ensembles, Fanfare Magazine, and Canadian Winds, and has recorded CDs with the Innova and Albany labels.

Cynthia has served as a board member with WASBE and is an active member of CBDNA (Vice-President Elect, SEC), Conductor’s Guild, College Music Society, Humanities Education and Research Association, the National Association for Music Education, the National Band Association, and the American Bandmasters Association. She currently serves on the board of the Western International Band Clinic (WIBC) and faculty at WIBC University. She is an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and a National Arts Associate member of Sigma Alpha Iota.