Christopher Jenkins

Chris Jenkins is the Associate Dean for Academic Support at Oberlin Conservatory. Jenkins is also an administrator, educator, and performing violist. At Oberlin, he is a Deputy Title IX Coordinator and Conservatory Liaison to the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. He was Deputy Director and professor of viola and violin at the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, West Bank, from 2013-14,   and served as Dean of the Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA), the Sphinx Organization’s summer music program for minority youth, for seven years. A third-place laureate of the Sphinx Competition, he was awarded Sphinx’s Sanford Allen Award for his leadership of SPA. Mr. Jenkins was awarded a Curriculum Diversification Grant by the American Society for Aesthetics in 2017, to complete a bibliography of works pertaining to African-American participation in the field of classical music. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, and in Broadway productions such as Les Miserables, Lion King, and Phantom of the Opera.

In 2011, Mr. Jenkins earned an M.P.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, focusing on the study of human rights and conflict resolution. His international engagement has included performances and music teaching in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Israel, China, Colombia, and South Africa, including a performance with the Jordan National Symphony at the World Heritage Site of Petra in 2016. In the summer of 2017, he served as a guest artist and teacher at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul, Afghanistan.