Brianna Trainor is an active percussionist and teacher in the Beloit area. She began teaching at Beloit College in 2022 and has been the percussion and drum set instructor at Dolce Music Academy (formerly Creekside Music Academy) since 2020.

Prior to relocating to Beloit from Columbia, MO, Brianna held teaching positions at the University of Missouri and Central Methodist University. She was also the Director of Education & Outreach for the Missouri Symphony Conservatory and has maintained her own private percussion and drum set teaching studio for nearly a decade.

Brianna is currently the Principal Percussionist for the Beloit Janesville Symphony Orchestra and the Percussionist/Timpanist for the Turtle Creek Chamber Orchestra. She previously held orchestral positions with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, and Columbia Civic Orchestra. She has also been an active pit drummer and percussionist, performing in over a dozen musical theater and staged opera productions in Wisconsin and Missouri.

Brianna is also passionate about ethnomusicology and the performance of world music. She has studied traditional music and dance in Ghana, West Africa at the Dagbe Cultural Institute and Dagara Music Center, and she was a founding member of Wontanara CoMo, a non-profit cultural arts organization in Columbia, MO. She frequently performs on and collects percussion instruments from Sub-Saharan Africa and other areas of the world.

Brianna holds Percussion Performance degrees from the University of Missouri (M.M.) and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (B.M.), as well as a Graduate Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship and a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. She stays active in the Beloit community as a Board Member and the String Camp Coordinator for the Turtle Creek Chamber Orchestra.