This Blog Post is Sponsored by The Louisiana Tech University School of Music.
Vanessa Cornett is the Director of Keyboard Studies and Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis – St. Paul. She teaches piano performance and courses through the Graduate Programs in Music Education, including elementary and intermediate piano pedagogy, keyboard literature, performance anxiety management for musicians, and contemplative practices in music education.
She is author of the book The Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance (Oxford University Press, 2019). Her other publications include papers in the Journal of Transformative Education, Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, College Music Symposium, American Music Teacher, the MTNA eJournal, Clavier Companion, The Canadian Music Teacher / Le Professeur de Musique Canadien, and three chapters in the fourth edition of the textbook Creative Piano Teaching. An editor for the Piano Magazine (formerly Clavier Companion), she oversees the magazine’s regular column on musician health and wellness.
An international clinician, Dr. Cornett has presented workshops and masterclasses in twenty of the United States and in fourteen countries on six continents, including invitations to Ireland, Finland, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Argentina, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 2019 she completed a faculty residency in Turkey, sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. She is an active clinician for national conferences of the Music Teachers National Association, the National Conference on
Keyboard Pedagogy, and the College Music Society. She has also presented at the World Piano Conference, International Society of Music Education World Congress, International Conference on Spirituality and Music Education, International Conference of the Arts in Society, Annual Symposium of the Performing Arts Medical Association, the Centre for the Study of International Governance, and at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
She is a member of the Committee on Wellness for the Pianist for the National Conference on Key- board Pedagogy, the College Music Society Committee on Musician’s Health, and the Wellness Fo- rum for the Minnesota Music Teachers Association. A member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, she was appointed to the PAMA/NASM Psychological Health Task Force. She received out- standing teaching awards from the Music Academy of North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and in 2018 was honored with the UNCG Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Cornett obtained the D.M.A. degree in piano performance and literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned her B.M. degree in piano performance and M.M. degree in piano pedagogy from West Virginia University, and the graduate certificate in sport psychology from the California Southern University School of Behavioral Sciences. She is a certified meditation instructor with an interest in mindfulness and performance anxiety management for musicians. Her current research focuses on contemplative practices, sport psychology, peak performance, and the mental health of musicians.