Jeanine Yaeger composer

Jeanine Nellis Yeager is a native of Dayton, Ohio. In high school, she was guest piano soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. She attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where, as an accompanist for the Conservatory dance department, she became skilled at keyboard improvisation. Her long-standing love for contemporary dance and improvisation is reflectd in her more meditative, interpretive compositions.
Mrs. Yeager completed her Bachelor of Music degree in piano at Capitol University; she received her Master of Music degree in theory and composition from the Ohio State University. Mrs. Yeager has given numerous lecture-performances of her compositions. She is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, the Dayton Music Club, and Dayton Piano Teachers Study Club.

As a composer, Mrs. Yeager has had sixteen piano collections published by the Neil A. Kjos Music Company of San Diego, California. In the January 1990 issue of Clavier Magazine, the department, Commissioned by Clavier, featured her composition, Silent Tears, from the collection Sincerely Yours, published by Kjos. In the summer, 1991 issue of Keyboard Companion magazine, she contributed an article, as guest author, for the department From the Inside Out: Motivation, Joyce Cameron, editor. The article covered the topic: "What music motivates children to enjoy playing?" This is one of Mrs. Yeager's chief goals as a piano teacher - to motivate students to enjoy playing piano. She feels strongly about a teacher's responsibility to learn to know and respect each student's individual personality differences in order to select music which will speak to them personally.

Aside from teaching piano and composition, Jeanine lives with her husband, Bob, "Little House on the Prairie style," in the lower level of a home they are building. The Yeagers are definitely "happy campers" on their hillside, overlooking a beautiful valley. Their 87 acres of woods, ravines, streams, and some pasture land make their outdoor life an ever-changing pleasure, including spring wild-flower walks in the woods, berry-picking and apple cider-pressing in the summer, cutting and hauling firewood in the fall, and tromping through snowy woods in winter. Jeanine appreciates the inspirational value of this serene, secluded life style, which activates musical creativity ranging from the sensitive, meditative, introspective, interpretive type, to the more energetic, almost athletically vigorous type - and much in between! It is not surprising that composition and out-door life are Jeanine's favorite activities.