About Me

I am originally from a small town in southeast South Dakota and both music and sports have always been competing parts of my life. Throughout high school, I was an all-state athlete in three sports and in college, a 6-time national qualifier in the triple jump. During my junior year of college, I realized as much as I enjoyed sports, music was my passion and future career and I could use my athleticism to enhance my musicianship. Playing for a school musical and church cantata, at age 9, were among the first of many collaborative experiences that lead to realizing my joy and abilities for collaborative piano.

For me, being a collaborative pianist means supporting and encouraging other musicians, helping them to be at their very best, while attaining the highest musical integrity possible – both in my individual technique and as an ensemble. Teaching, coaching ensembles, and rehearsing and performing are not work to me because I love every moment. But, I do have another passion in life, and that is my family. My husband Darin and I have three children: Sophia (11), Dakota (7) and Oliver (5). When I am not on campus, you may find me playing softball/baseball or 4-square with the kids, watching them at their activities, running, hiking, biking or playing tennis.

Professional Experience

A passionate educator and performer, Jaime Namminga is an assistant professor of music at Susquehanna University, where she coordinates the collaborative piano area and teaches ear training and class piano. She holds a BM in piano performance from the University of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a MM in collaborative piano from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and a DMA in collaborative piano from Arizona State University, where her major teachers have included Allison Gagnon and Andrew Campbell. Namminga has been a rehearsal pianist, coach and vocal director for various opera and theatre productions, a choral and dance pianist at several universities, an adjudicator and pianist for concerto and composition competitions, and has performed on numerous recitals with noted performers such as Wesley Baldwin, Dennis AsKew, Corrine Byrne and Gabriel Meza. Indie Opera Podcast described her playing as “gorgeous and fantastic” and Namminga was a finalist for the 2021 Puerto Rico Collaborative Piano Institute competition. Her scholarship includes writings and presentations on various collaborative piano topics, including the pianistic enhancing of musical theatre and choral repertoire. Namminga’s article “Choral Pianist: The Unspoken Co-Leader” will be published in the Nov/Dec 2022 issue of Choral Journal. She composes and arranges, namely for voice, piano and strings. Namminga is a member of Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association (PMTA), Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and a mentor for International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS).

Courses Taught