Jeffrey Turner enjoys a multi-faceted career as an educator, orchestral musician, chamber musician, soloist, and conductor.
A dedicated teacher, Turner currently serves as Professor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He also holds the position of Distinguished Artist at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, where he serves as conductor of the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra. Turner served on the faculty of Duquesne University for nearly three decades (1988–2017), with terms as Director of Orchestral Activities (2011-2016), String Department Chair (1995–1999) and Artistic Director of the City Music Center’s Young Bassist Program. He also held the position of Artist Lecturer in Double Bass at Carnegie Mellon University from 1989–2011. Turner has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Maryland and as resident artist for many annual educational festivals, including the Pacific Music Festival, the National Orchestral Institute, the National Youth Orchestra (USA), and the Asian Youth Orchestra (Hong Kong).
Turner currently holds the Principal Bass position with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center. As principal bassist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Turner served thirty-one seasons under music directors Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, and Manfred Honeck. He was the principal bassist of the New American Chamber Orchestra from 1984–1986 and played with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the 1986–87 season. He has performed with many distinguished American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Turner has performed as a chamber musician at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the Korsholm Festival (Finland), and the St. Bartholemy Music Festival (FWI).
As winner of the Y Music Society’s Passamaneck Award, he appeared in a critically acclaimed recital at Carnegie Music Hall in 1989. He was also a winner of the 1990 Pittsburgh Concert Society’s Artist Award. He regularly appears in recital at venues throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. Turner has appeared often as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, including in world premieres of Thomas Newman’s double bass concerto Ward’s Ferry and Leonardo Balada’s Caprichos No. 4, Mozart’s ‘Per questa bella mano’ with Thomas Quasthof and Mariss Jansons, as well as many of Giovanni Bottesini’s most popular works. In 2021 he gave the Pittsburgh premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Dark with Excessive Bright with Resonance Works.
In 2009, Turner completed his master’s in conducting with Dr. Robert Page at Carnegie Mellon University. As Director of Orchestral Studies at Duquesne University from 2011–2016 he was conductor of the Duquesne Symphony Orchestra. He has been Artistic Director of the City Music Center Chamber Orchestra (2004–2008) and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Live Chamber Orchestra (2004–2006). He was Music Director and Conductor of the Pittsburgh Music Academy Orchestra from 1997–2000. He also served as Artist Lecturer in Conducting and conducted opera productions at Carnegie Mellon University. Turner has conducted his Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra colleagues in benefit concerts and serves as a guest clinician conducting high-school orchestras and All-State Orchestra festivals nationwide.
