Bio

Jenni Sonstroem has been teaching music in North Carolina since 1999. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano Performance. After graduation, she traveled to Mali, West Africa, where she studied the djembe and balafon with Malian master musicians—an experience that shaped her deep passion for world music and cultural traditions. Over the years, she has been fortunate to travel to five continents.

Jenni began her teaching career at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School in Asheville, NC, while also working as a professional jazz pianist. She performed regularly at the Biltmore Inn and the Grove Park Inn, and toured with musicians along the East Coast and throughout the southeastern United States.

She earned her Master of Music in Jazz Piano Performance and her teaching certification from East Carolina University. Jenni went on to teach middle and primary school general music in Greenville, NC before moving to Wake County in 2008 to establish the music program at Laurel Park Elementary School in Apex. When Apex Friendship Elementary opened in 2022, she joined the founding staff as the school’s music educator.

Jenni is certified in World Music Drumming and achieved National Board Certification in Early/Middle Childhood Vocal Music in 2009. She has received multiple grants, including a Bright Ideas grant that funded a Yamaha Music in Education (MIE) keyboard lab for her school in 2012. In 2014, she began piloting the Quaver Music digital curriculum, which now serves 10 million students in more than 28,000 schools worldwide and partners with organizations such as the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), ISTE, ASCA, and NAfME.

A dedicated advocate for music education, Jenni has served as both a United Arts Council representative and a member of her school’s Leadership Team. She has facilitated numerous workshops for educators, covering topics from marketing and fundraising to curriculum work. During the 2020–21 school year, she collaborated with Wake County music colleagues and the Quaver Team to develop an aligned pacing guide for the district’s music curriculum. She continues to contribute to curriculum projects with Quaver Ed, based in Nashville, TN.

Jenni was selected as one of four curriculum authors for the North Carolina Symphony Education Concert in both 2015 and 2021. Her schools have been highlighted in Wake County Public Schools social media, the Raleigh News & Observer, WNCN’s “Cool School of the Day,” and PBS/UNC-TV’s North Carolina Now. Her classroom was also featured in Quaver Ed’s Teacher Voices article, “Building a Bridge to Learning and Discovery,” written by Kristin Clark Taylor, former White House staff member and current USA Today journalist.

When she is not teaching, Jenni loves traveling and exploring local culture with her husband and their twins.