Lyn Koenning has over twenty years teaching, conducting and performing experience. She discovered her calling early in life when she began teaching piano to neighborhood children and "directing" musicals at about age eight. Nearly four decades later, she is more passionate than ever about inspiring students to excel in the performing arts.
An accomplished pianist, Lyn has extensive performing credits as a collaborative pianist for voice, wind, brass, cover and pop bands, and musical theatre and opera. Lyn garnered the 2008 Austin Critic’s Table Award as “Best Musical Director” for her musical direction of Assassins at UT, ZACH Theatre’s recent landmark production of Porgy and Bess and the TexARTS production of Carousel at the Paramount Theatre. She has previously music directed the UT productions of The Threepenny Opera, Time Again in Oz, Marat/Sade, and Cabaret.
Lyn's experience as a performer and teacher perfectly complements her love for musical theatre. She has served as musical director or conductor for, at last count, almost fifty productions in Austin, five of which were named Best Musical including Beehive, Rockin' Christmas Party, Dreamgirls, Big River, and The Secret Garden. Lyn has had multiple appearances as musical director at ZACH, the Paramount Theatre, the State Theatre, UT's B. Iden Payne and Oscar G. Brockett theatres, St. Edwards' Mary Moody Northen Theatre, and Zilker Hillside Theatre. She has been nominated by the Austin Circle of Theatres and the Austin Critics' Table as Best Musical Director for Five Guys Named Moe (1994), The Beggar's Opera (1995), A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine (1999), and Big River (1999). She was the recipient of the Austin Critics' Table Award for Best Musical Director in 2005 for The Secret Garden (Zilker Hillside Theatre) and Cabaret (UT).
Lyn is a member of Musical Theatre Educator's Alliance and currently teaches courses in musical theatre performance practices and audition and rehearsal techniques under the auspices of the Department of Theatre and Dance's Musical Theatre Pilot Project. She is on the faculty of the US Performing Arts Camp, a summer program for young performers who want to study, work and learn in a professional theatre environment.
Education:
- Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Literature
The University of Texas at Austin - Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, summa cum laude
Texas Tech University
