Member, Commission on Accreditation
Elected November 2025; term ends November 2028
KATHRYN E. ANANDA-OWENS is Professor of Music at St. Olaf College where she teaches courses in applied piano, chamber music, piano literature, and music performance science. She served as Chair of the Music Department from 2020 to 2024. In 2022 she was named a quarterfinalist for the GRAMMY Museum Music Educator Award for launching the “Higher Ed Music Lessons in the Time of COVID-19” Facebook group to crowdsource best practices for music educators in the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
As a classical pianist, Professor Ananda-Owens made her Asian debut in 1997 under the auspices of the government of Macao and her European debut the following year in Vienna. A laureate of the American Pianists Association Biennial Fellowship Competition, she has performed as a soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, toured internationally with the St. Olaf Orchestra, and appeared on the NYPLPA Series at Lincoln Center. Her concerts have been broadcast around the globe and recorded on the MSR, Centaur, Limestone, St. Olaf Records, and Westmark labels. She is a regular guest of The Juilliard School’s graduate piano seminar, where she lectures on style analysis of Mozart’s piano concerto cadenzas and on composition and improvisation in the style of Mozart. A founding member of the New Horizons Chamber Ensemble, she performed for many years as the pianist of the Melius Trio.
Professor Ananda-Owens maintains a scholarly interest in the field of music performance science. She served two terms on the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Medicine Association and co-chaired the association’s 2014 Medical Problems of Performing Artists Symposium. She currently serves on the Association’s Education Committee. She has also been a faculty member for PAMA’s “Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine” Certificate program for many years. She is among the co-authors of The Oxford Handbook of Musician Health Advocacy, forthcoming from Oxford UP.
Professor Ananda-Owens has served NASM as Secretary of Region 4.
Professor Ananda-Owens holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University, a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Oberlin College. She was in the first cohort of individuals to earn the American College of Sports Medicine and Performing Arts Medicine Association Certificate in Performance Health.
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Updated January 2026