Biography
Pianist Kristin Jónína Taylor focuses her interpretive work on Nordic keyboard repertoire, with particular depth in Icelandic composers. She maintains an active profile as a chamber performer alongside her husband, pianist Bryan Stanley, while holding a faculty position as professor of piano at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Several commercial recordings document her activity, among them the 2024 release Midwest Piano Sonatas.
Born January 15, 1976, in the Kansas City, Missouri, region, she began keyboard study at age two. Her mother, born in Iceland, taught piano for thirty years; her father, originally from Iowa, sang in choruses. A formative interval occurred during high school when the family spent time in Iceland because her father was researching literacy. There she worked with teacher Halldór Haraldsson and briefly contemplated permanent residence. She completed undergraduate study at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, receiving a bachelor’s degree in piano performance in 1997 and a master’s degree two years later. Joanne Baker and Richard Cass served as her principal instructors in Kansas City. For doctoral work she attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff guided her solo playing and Sandra Rivers, Richard Morris, and the Pridonoff Duo instructed her in collaborative repertoire. Additional European lessons came from Diane Andersen, Daniel Blumenthal, and Jacques Lagarde. Her first commercial recording appeared in 2011 on the Icelandic Music label under the title The Well Tempered Pianist: Music for solo piano by Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson.
Recitals have taken her across the United States and through both Western and Eastern Europe, reaching Latvia and Lithuania. At the Reykjavík Arts Festival she presented an all-Schumann program. From 2005 to 2017 she taught at Waldorf University in Iowa before joining the University of Nebraska at Omaha faculty in 2017; by the mid-2020s she had attained the rank of associate professor. Further discs include the 2016 Navona Records album Gone, but Not Forgotten, recorded with trumpeter Marc Reed, and the already noted Midwest Piano Sonatas issued in 2024 on the same label. She serves as editor-in-chief of Homo Ludens Publishing and participates in several American music-education associations.
Born January 15, 1976, in the Kansas City, Missouri, region, she began keyboard study at age two. Her mother, born in Iceland, taught piano for thirty years; her father, originally from Iowa, sang in choruses. A formative interval occurred during high school when the family spent time in Iceland because her father was researching literacy. There she worked with teacher Halldór Haraldsson and briefly contemplated permanent residence. She completed undergraduate study at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, receiving a bachelor’s degree in piano performance in 1997 and a master’s degree two years later. Joanne Baker and Richard Cass served as her principal instructors in Kansas City. For doctoral work she attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff guided her solo playing and Sandra Rivers, Richard Morris, and the Pridonoff Duo instructed her in collaborative repertoire. Additional European lessons came from Diane Andersen, Daniel Blumenthal, and Jacques Lagarde. Her first commercial recording appeared in 2011 on the Icelandic Music label under the title The Well Tempered Pianist: Music for solo piano by Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson.
Recitals have taken her across the United States and through both Western and Eastern Europe, reaching Latvia and Lithuania. At the Reykjavík Arts Festival she presented an all-Schumann program. From 2005 to 2017 she taught at Waldorf University in Iowa before joining the University of Nebraska at Omaha faculty in 2017; by the mid-2020s she had attained the rank of associate professor. Further discs include the 2016 Navona Records album Gone, but Not Forgotten, recorded with trumpeter Marc Reed, and the already noted Midwest Piano Sonatas issued in 2024 on the same label. She serves as editor-in-chief of Homo Ludens Publishing and participates in several American music-education associations.
Albums
