Wendy Payton grew up in Placerville where she began her piano studies with John Trenalone, then studied piano with Dilworth Simmons in Sacramento. At the age of twelve, she began teaching piano and had a studio of ten students throughout her high school years. She double majored in piano performance (studying with Frank Wiens) and music history at University of the Pacific, and did graduate work in music history and theory at University of Illinois (where her piano teachers were Daisy de Luca Jaffe and Lydia Artymiw) and at the University of Iowa, where she earned a master’s degree in organ (studying with Paul Tegels, John Chappell Stowe and Delbert Disselhorst). Ms. Payton served on the music faculty at Stillman College (Tuscaloosa, AL) and at Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS). She has performed in 29 states.