Jena Gardner, DMA, is Associate Professor of Horn at Western Illinois University (WIU) and director of the WIU Community Music School. Since joining the faculty in 2018, Dr. Gardner’s teaching has been described as “warm . . . and infused with curiosity and passion.” Her expertise in holistic horn pedagogy was recognized in 2023 with WIU’s prestigious Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Gardner is an accomplished soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout Illinois and across the United States. She has performed extensively around the world including tours in Europe, Mexico, Japan, and the United States. She has been a guest section member with the Chicago Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Steamboat Springs Festival Orchestra horn sections, and served as acting 2nd and 4th horn of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, respectively.

Dr. Gardner is a passionate chamber musician and can be heard performing with the faculty ensembles at Western Illinois University: the Camerata Woodwind Quintet and the Lamoine Brass Quintet. She is one of four horn players in the Cobalt Quartet, professional division winners of the 2018 International Horn Society’s Horn Quartet Competition. The Cobalt Quartet performs regularly at international conferences and universities across the United States including Louisiana State University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Madison, Wisconsin, the Sanibel Music Festival, and the Wooster Chamber Music Festival, among others.

In 2021, Dr. Gardner was awarded a research grant by the Western Illinois University Foundation and the Office of Sponsored Projects. The resulting project, Overuse Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation in Brass Pedagogy, was presented at the International Horn Society’s 53rd international conference and later at the International Women’s Brass Conference at the University of North Texas. In addition to this lecture, Dr. Gardner received a certification in the Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine and curates the website BrassInjury.com, providing a number of resources to musicians, students, and educators.

Dr. Gardner completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at Northwestern University under the guidance of Gail Williams and Jon Boen and was involved in presenting the 2016 and 2017 Peak Performance Horn Symposiums. She holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Horn Performance from Carnegie Mellon University and Northwestern University, respectively. Her primary teachers have included Gail Williams, Jon Boen, Bill Caballero, Dave Krehbiel, and Jennie Blomster.