Karen S. Wilson

Karen S. Wilson has taught piano and music history courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels at Bob Jones University for fifty years. She retired from the faculty in May of 2016 as the head of the music history and literature department.

A native of Wheelersburg, Ohio, Dr. Wilson received the Bachelor of Arts degree and the Master of Arts degrees in piano performance from Bob Jones University. After further graduate work at Boston University, she completed her Ph.D. in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her dissertation was under the direction of William S. Newman and concerns the series of piano pieces, The Years of Pilgrimage, by Franz Liszt.

An active member of the National Guild of Piano Teachers, SC Federation of Music Clubs, and the American Musicological Society, she has adjudicated auditions for the National Guild of Piano Teachers, South Carolina Music Teachers Association, Georgia State MTA, SC Federation of Music Clubs, and several other music organizations. She has also served as district pre-college auditions chairman, state auditions chairman, and state treasurer of the SCMTA.

Dr. Wilson has taught all levels of piano, from pre-school through graduate school and currently teaches pre-college students. These current students, as well as her beloved grandnieces and grandnephews, have been the inspiration for composing teaching pieces. She enjoys several other activities including reading, writing poetry and hymn texts, crocheting, and sewing. She has been the pianist for Trinity Baptist Church in Gaffney, SC for over forty years.