Christopher S Jenkins

In July of 2025, I became the Dean of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music. What excites me the most about Lawrence is the incredible creativity and passion of our faculty and the student experience they create. I firmly believe that the future of classical music in America lies in an interdisciplinary approach that honors the diverse cultures of the larger American musical landscape. At Lawrence, we fuse diverse approaches to musicking with the intensity and rigor required in a serious conservatory of music.

Before arriving at Lawrence, I was the Associate Dean for Academic Support and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology at Oberlin Conservatory. I taught courses on hip-hop and the racial politics of classical music but my primary role was in student support, and in curating a student experience centered on equity, in which every student has access to the resources they need to succeed musically and academically. My first book, Assimilation v. Integration in Music Education, on support for students of color and low-income students in conservatory settings, was published in 2023. While at Oberlin, I completed a DMA in viola performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a PhD in musicology at Case Western Reserve University, where I studied and performed Western classical music by African-American composers with a specific focus on the composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.

I write and present often on issues of diversity in music education at institutions such as Curtis Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, the College Music Society and the Black Orchestral Network. In partnership with music theorist Philip Ewell, I co-founded the groundbreaking Theorizing African-American Music conference, which promotes new frames of analysis for African-American music. I am also a steering committee member and book editor for the journal Black Music, in Theory and an editorial board member for Spark Magazine out of the University of Michigan. Some of my awards for teaching, service, scholarship, and music performance include 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 third-place laureate in the Sphinx Competition. In 2024, my solo recording of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Blue/s Forms was released by the American Viola Society.

My academic and administrative work is informed by many years as a performer in different genres. As a violist, I’ve performed with groups focused on canonical repertoire such as the New York Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony. But I deeply value my time spent with repertoire outside of the classical canon. I’ve been able to perform in Broadway productions such as Spamalot, The Lion King, and Phantom of the Opera, and as principal viola for the Sphinx Virtuosi, in addition to touring and appearing onstage with stars such as Diana Ross and Taylor Swift and playing with alternative bands like Invert and The Rachels. I encourage all students to study improvisation, composition arranging, and modal theory at Lawrence because developing these skills will make you a stronger and more marketable performer.

My background includes many years of international experience. I have worked as the Deputy Director and instructor of viola and violin at the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, West Bank and have taught and performed in Palestine, Lebanon, and the UAE; with members of the Jordan National Symphony at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra; with Pakistani musicians in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad; and in Kabul, Afghanistan as a guest artist for the Afghan National Institute of Music. I encourage players interested in international music education to emphasize the collaborative nature of such projects and to consider the needs of all constituent populations, rather than framing Western classical music education as an absolute good.