Cynthia Johnston Turner
Cynthia Johnston Turner is a conductor and clinician in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Canada. She was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in July 2021. Previously she served as Director of Bands on the faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia where we oversaw the entire UGA Band program, including the 440-member Redcoat Marching Band, Masters and Doctoral student in conducting, was chair of the conducting area, and artistic director of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. She formerly served on the faculty of  Cornell University, where she directed the Wind Ensemble, Wind Symphony and chamber winds. Turner is a guest conductor and clinician in Canada, United States, and abroad. A Canadian, Turner completed her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees at Queen's University and her Master of Music in music education and conducting at the University of Victoria. Touring with her ensembles inspired her master's thesis on the musical and personal transformations that occur on tours, and her D.M.A. thesis at the Eastman School of Music centered on "Dialogues and Entertainments" by William Kraft. At Eastman, she was the  recipient of the Eastman Graduate Teaching Award in conducting. She was nominated for the Canadian Prime Minister's Leadership in Teaching Award and received the National Leadership in Education Award (Readers Digest Foundation), the Excellence in Education Award (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation), and the Marion Drysdale Leadership Among Women Teachers Award (also from OSSTF). Service is an important component of Turner's career. Since January 2006, she has led the Cornell Wind Ensemble on performing and service-learning tours to Costa Rica and Panama that include performances and masterclasses across the two countries and the donation of instruments (over  250 to date) to a rural 'escuela de musicas.' The Hodgson Wind Ensemble has taken similar tours to rural Georgia and Panama. Turner has commissioned hundreds of new works for wind band, contemporary music ensembles, and orchestra, and she continues to actively promote commissions by today's leading and emerging composers around the world with a focus on underrepresented composers. Under her direction, the Cornell Wind Ensemble was invited to perform at the College Band Directors National Association's Eastern Division Conference in 2007 and 2012, and the Hodgson Wind Ensemble will perform at CBDNA National in Kansas City in  2017. In 2008, the Merrill Presidential Scholars at Cornell recognized Turner as an outstanding educator, and in 2009, she was awarded the Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. Her performances have been praised by such composers as Steven Stucky, Omar Thomas, William Kraft, Steven Bryant, Marc Mellits, Melinda Wagner, Peter Lane, Eddie Mora Bermudez, Dana Wilson, Roberto Sierra, and Karel Husa. Turner has guest conducted the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain, the Syracuse Symphony ("Symphoria"), the National Youth Band of Canada, University of Southern California Wind Ensemble, Concordia Santa Fe, the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble, the Eastman Wind Ensemble , the Latin American Honor Band, the National Band of Costa Rica, the National Orchestra of Heredia, and numerous state honor bands. Turner 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 Music Educators Journal, Interdisciplinary Humanities, International Journal of the Humanities, Journal of the World Association of Bands and Ensembles, Fanfare Magazine, and Canadian Winds, and has recorded CDs with the Innova and Albany labels. She is a member of the College Band Directors National Association , National Band Association, and American Bandmasters Association.