Wayne Wilkinson
Piano, keyboards
Owner, Cincinnati Music Academy
Vice President, Junior Music Experience
Member, Ohio Music Teachers Association
Wayne Wilkinson really enjoys teaching music! His students include older children, teenagers and adults. He has several beginning students (including adults) and many who are more experienced.
Wayne offers a special program to people who want to enjoy making music — who want to play the kind of music they like and have fun doing it. When it comes to “pop” music, jazz, and — especially — the “standards,” he likes to teach about playing more than the printed music reveals: how to add the extras (improvising, fills, fancy chords and the like) that can make this kind of music even more enjoyable to play. Wayne is at ease teaching from “Lead Sheets” and “Fake Books.”
In addition to piano, Wayne provides instruction on organ and digital keyboards.
For 13 years, Wayne was an internationally-known staff artist, clinician, writer of instruction programs and designer of electronic musical instruments at Baldwin Piano and Organ Co. in Cincinnati. Known as a “Special Musical Ambassador” for Baldwin, he gave concerts and presented workshops in many parts of the world, from Australia to Sweden and from Taiwan to South Africa. During that time, he had the opportunity to observe and learn from many top ‘pop,’ jazz and classical musicians. He was also instrumental in the development of one of the earliest forms of interactive, computerized music instruction for keyboard instruments.
Wilkinson has been a music student since age five. He attended high school in Rockford, Illinois and in 1967 earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Liberal Arts from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Today, he lives with three in-house cats (Piccadilly, Murphy and BC), and one out-house cat (so to speak).
Special note: Wayne’s wife, Lenore, who established Cincinnati Music Academy in 1997 with Amy Immerman and Paul McCready, died suddenly in July 2006. Wayne and Lenore were married for 28 years and shared a love of people and music and, especially, teaching. Wayne still misses Lenore dearly — as do many members of the area music community.