Health and Wellness for Church Musicians
Trinity Episcopal Church
Presenter: Jillian Gardner

Musicians, and especially organists, wear many hats as performers, teachers, students, and liturgists. Our workdays can be long, with few breaks in between. Many of us have such arduous time constraint that we skip meals or eat fast food fast. Sometimes the pressures of holiday seasons or performance anxieties cause us to lose sleep. And so very few of us exercise regularly. These everyday lifestyle choices can become unfortunate habits over the years, at a detriment to our health and well-being.
Topics include: Mental Wellness, Healthy eating, exercise away from the console (light and heavy exercise), and other ways to be fit for life.

Jillian Gardner is finishing her last semester of organ studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas and then will move to Huntsville, Alabama where she will become the Director of Music at First United Methodist Church. She will be the primary organist and will administrate a program that includes children and adults in over ten choirs and ensembles. She maintains an active concert career and has given recitals throughout the United States, performing in venues such as Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco, and St. Thomas 5th Avenue in New York City.  Her tours in the United Kingdom have included performances at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, St. Paul Cathedral in London, and St. Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol.  She has also been a featured artist for Organ Historical Society Conventions in Syracuse, NY (2014) and Minneapolis, MN (2017).
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Gardner is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with James David Christie, Marie-Louise Langlais. She studied with Isabelle Demers at Baylor University in Waco, Texas from 2015 to 2019, earning both a Master’s degree in Organ Performance and the Advanced Performer’s Certificate.  Additional studies have taken her twice to the McGill Summer Organ Academy in Montréal, Canada (2013, 2015) where she studied with Olivier Latry, Hank Knox, and Hans-Ola Ericsson.   
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No stranger to the competition circuit, Gardner took first place in the chapter level competition of the Regional Competition for Young Organists (RCYO) in Buffalo, New York in March 2013.  In March 2015, Gardner won the RCYO chapter level competition again, this time in Albany, New York. During the same month, The Diapason magazine selected her into the first class of one of the "Top 20 under 30" organists in the nation, which recognizes individuals under age 30 who have made significant contributions to the fields of organ performance, harpsichord and church music. In April 2015, she was a finalist in the Arthur Poister competition in Syracuse, New York and in June 2017 she received second prize in the Québec organ competition in Québec, Canada.
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Passionate about making the organ accessible to as many people as possible, Gardner served on the Southwest Region’s committee for the AGO Young Organists (AGOYO) and currently serves as the National Convener for AGOYO.  On the concert stage, her diverse programs and signature pink organ shoes brighten each of her colorful performances. Outside the organ loft, Gardner advocates physical fitness, believing that a healthy mind and body contribute to artistic quality. Gardner enjoys meeting new people and is enthusiastic to travel and experience different cultures in the United States and abroad as she pursues a career as a church organist, teacher, and recitalist.