Jennifer Brooke (J.B.) Taylor has been active as a piano teacher and professional church musician for over 25 years. She began her studies at the age of 4 under the instruction of Donna Kurtz in Bucyrus, Ohio. She was among the first generation of students in the United States to study piano using the Suzuki approach, shortly after it was adapted for the piano. As a young student, J.B. received numerous awards, including the grand prizes in both the Young Keyboard Artist Association’s and the American Music Scholarship Association’s International Piano Competitions. She began playing for local churches at the age of 12, accompanying adult choirs and congregations. J.B. also became an accomplished flutist and singer, performing as a soloist in community theater and school productions as well as participating in many instrumental ensembles and honor bands.
After receiving a full academic scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College with majors in both music and business, she continued to broaden her musical horizons to include jazz piano, touring with the West Virginia Wesleyan jazz ensemble in the eastern United States and Europe. She began her first foray into composing and arranging for her sorority choir. J.B. was also very involved with the West Virginia Wesleyan chapel choir and college chapel services as a pianist and worship planner.
As a graduate piano student at Florida State University, J.B. studied under Dr. Victoria McArthur, one of the first authors of the Piano Adventures method series, and tested some of the first iterations of these method books with her students during that time. She also served as the pianist for a local church in Tallahassee and continued to gain more experience with church choral music. After graduating with her Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, J.B. remained at Florida State to obtain her MBA and then worked as a management consultant for Accenture in Philadelphia.
J.B. ultimately decided to leave the business world and return to being a full time musician. From 2002 – 2009, she was a Suzuki piano faculty member and Assistant Director of Suzuki Talent Education at the MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis. She was selected as a Shinichi Suzuki Scholar by the American Suzuki Institute, and the Suzuki Association of the Americas presented her with a Certificate of Achievement for her teaching. She served as a guest clinician at Suzuki institutes and workshops in Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa, Alaska, and Tennessee and was a board member of the Suzuki Association of Minnesota. She also served as the Music Director for Epworth United Methodist Church in St. Paul during her time in Minnesota, accompanying the choir as well as planning all choral and service music.
After moving to Lexington, Kentucky, in 2009, J.B. founded Suzuki Piano of Lexington, a large private piano studio. She coached many of her students for entrance into the local performing arts magnet school and helped several win local and regional awards. She served as the state chairperson for the Junior Composers Awards, always encouraging students to express their creativity and learn more about the art of composition. J.B. also served as the accompanist for Georgetown First United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Kentucky, where she continued to expand her knowledge of choral music and began playing many of her own original compositions in worship. In 2013 she began attending the Composers Symposium in Atlanta, a hands on conference of church music composers founded by Joseph Martin. It was at this symposium that she first began to present her original compositions for critique and publication.
In 2016, J.B. moved to Savannah, Georgia, where she continued to teach privately and serve two additional churches as the music director, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Rincon and Trinity United Methodist Church in Savannah’s historic district. She also taught piano skills classes for music majors at Georgia Southern University. J.B. and her husband then moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where she continued her work music ministry at Meadows Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville and was active as a composer, teacher, and freelance musician. In February of 2023, she began a new job as Director of Music Ministry at Belle Meade United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to her role at Belle Meade, she continues her work as a composer and arranger.