Masterclass with Jessica Chow Shinn & Michael Shinn

Jessica Chow Shinn joined the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2018 and is an associate professor of collaborative piano.

She was a faculty member at the Juilliard School in the College and Evening divisions from 2012–2017. She is the cofounder and coartistic director of the pianoSonoma Music Festival, which brings together artists in residence and adult musicians to collaborate and perform in private and public concerts and community workshops across the country.

Passionate advocates of new music, Shinn and her husband, pianist and Conservatory Interim Executive Director Michael Shinn, have given world premieres by composers such as Adam Schoenberg and Thomas Cabaniss. In April 2017, they performed the world premiere of Double Rainbow, a two-piano concerto by Cabaniss, with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Shinn’s other performing engagements have included recitals in Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall at the Green Music Center, the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montréal, and Salle Cortot in Paris. The Shinns have been invited to speak about the role of the arts in society and to perform at the Pebble Beach Authors and Ideas Festival.

Shinn’s interest in the integration of theater and song led to her appointment as music director of an innovative New York University production of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben.

Shinn received her Doctor of Musical Arts at Juilliard, where she studied with Margo Garrett, Jonathan Feldman, and Brian Zeger. She received her Master of Music from New England Conservatory of Music and her Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College. She is a Yamaha artist.

Michael Shinn, DMA, was appointed executive director of Boston Conservatory at Berklee in October 2024. In this role, Shinn oversees strategy, operations, and artistic planning for the Conservatory and works closely with faculty members and administrators to develop a transformative curriculum that reflects an ever-evolving performing arts landscape. In addition, Shinn represents Boston Conservatory and its interests, both across the Berklee organization and in public arenas.

Shinn’s passion for educating creative and versatile performing artists of the future, combined with his steadfast support for the outstanding faculty and students at Boston Conservatory, have been foundational to his leadership. Prior to his appointment as executive director, he served as both Boston Conservatory’s interim executive director (2023–2024) and as dean of music (2017–2023). In these roles, Shinn led Boston Conservatory to several significant achievements. As interim executive director, he oversaw strategic enrollment growth; raised philanthropic funding that exceeded the Conservatory’s annual goal by 40 percent; brought Krisha Marcano(Opens in a new window) onto the Conservatory’s leadership team as dean of theater; hired more than 30 new faculty members(Opens in a new window) across the school’s three divisions; rolled out new academic offerings for Conservatory students, such as a minor in Africana studies(Opens in a new window); and deepened the Conservatory’s partnerships with learning environments across Berklee, including Berklee Online and Berklee NYC.

As dean of music, he led impactful innovations in the division’s academic and artistic programming, including developing new vision and positioning statements. He also refined curriculum in support of Boston Conservatory’s Strategic Direction for 2020–2025(Opens in a new window), and established important partnerships with renowned organizations such as Silkroad Ensemble and Boston Lyric Opera (BLO).

One of Shinn’s chief goals as dean was to leverage the merger with Berklee for the benefit of the Conservatory as well as the entire institution. He brokered partnerships with Berklee Valencia, both to launch the study abroad program for Music Division students and to support the Summer Opera Intensive there; with Berklee NYC to record ensembles from the Music Division in 8K virtual reality at their world-class Power Station studios; and with the College’s Screen Scoring Department for their students’ compositions to be recorded at Berklee NYC by ensembles from the Music Division. As a result of these initiatives, Boston Conservatory students are now at the vanguard of their fields as artistic changemakers and leaders.

Shinn’s diverse career in music reflects his deep passion for performance, education, entrepreneurship, and innovation in the arts. Prior to Boston Conservatory, Shinn was chair of keyboard studies at The Juilliard School, where he taught piano, chamber music, piano pedagogy, and keyboard skills for both pianists and conductors. He also served as senior advisor for artistic and educational programs at Juilliard Global Ventures, where he designed and taught Juilliard’s first online course, Juilliard Piano Class: Sharpen Your Artistry.

Together with his wife, Jessica (also a pianist and faculty member at the Conservatory), Shinn cofounded and directs the pianoSonoma(Opens in a new window) Music Festival, which has been a major vehicle for supporting the development of the finest young musicians.

Shinn has designed innovative lectures and courses on a variety of subjects, often focusing on his specialty, the music of Franz Liszt. In 2011, he was the artistic director of the Liszt Festival at Juilliard, a series of lecture-recitals celebrating the composer’s bicentennial that brought together world-class artists and pedagogues.

Shinn and his wife are both Yamaha Artists and duo pianists who passionately advocate for new music, having given world premieres by composers such as Adam Schoenberg and Thomas Cabaniss. They commissioned the latter to write a major two-piano concerto, Double Rainbow, that is the centerpiece of a recently released album featuring the complete repertoire that Cabaniss has written for the duo.

Shinn is also a loving father of two, and when time permits he is a passionate runner, cyclist, and triathlete.

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