Jill Trinka is Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs in Music Education at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where she also directs the UST Kodály Institute and teaches graduate and undergraduate music education courses. Dr. Trinka holds degrees in music education from the University of Illinois (B.S.) and the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.), and Kodály Certification from the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, as a Ford Foundation Ringer Fellow. She has taught music in public and private schools in Illinois, New York, Connecticut, and Texas, pre-K through grade 5. Dr. Trinka has taught in Kodály teacher education programs throughout the United States, including the University of North Texas, where she was also Director of the Center for Contemporary Studies in Music Education; Portland State University in Portland, Oregon; The Hartt School at University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, and DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Trinka is a past president of the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE); she received their Ourstanding Educator award in 2003. She currently serves on their Teacher Education Committee and chairs the "Educating the Teacher of Teachers" track at OAKE National conferences.

Internationally recognized as "an energetic and winsome performer," Jill is a frequent lecturer, clinician, and performer at national, regional, and local conferences and workshops. Her specialties include music literacy pedagogy and folk music performance, analysis, and research. She plays guitar, dulcimer, autoharp, and banjo, and has recorded and written four volumes of folksongs, singing games, and play parties for kids of all ages: My Little Rooster (1987), Bought Me a Cat (1988), John, the Rabbit (1989), and The Little Black Bull (1996). Dr. Trinka is an author for the Silver Burdett/Scott Foresman music series textbooks. In 2006, GIA Music released her three new recordings, Had a Little Rooster, There's a Hole in the Bucket, and Old Joe Clark - a collaborative project with Dr. John Feierabend.