Christopher Jenkins

In July of 2025, Christopher Jenkins became Dean and Associate Professor of Musicology at Lawrence Conservatory. Previously, he was the Associate Dean for Academic Support, Conservatory Liaison to the Office of DEI, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology at Oberlin Conservatory, where he taught courses on hip-hop and the racial politics of classical music. His doctoral degrees include a DMA in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a PhD in musicology from Case Western Reserve University, while his other alma maters include Harvard and Columbia universities, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. As a violist, Chris has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony, the Akron Symphony, various Broadway productions, and the Sphinx Virtuosi, in addition to appearing onstage with stars such as Diana Ross and Taylor Swift. In 2024, his first solo recording, of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Blue/s Forms, was released by the American Viola Society. Chris is the winner of multiple awards for teaching, service, scholarship, and music performance, including Oberlin College’s “Faculty Champions” award; the Cleveland Orchestra’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service in the Arts Award; the Cleveland Music Settlement’s Ida Mercer Community Service Award; Karamu House’s “Room in the House” Fellowship; CWRU’s Adel Heinrich Award for Excellence in Musicological Research; the American Society for Aesthetics’ Irene Chayes “New Voices” award; the American Viola Society’s David Dalton Research Competition; and as a third-place laureate in the Sphinx Competition.