Biography

Christina L. Reitz received a BM in Piano Performance from the Dana School of Music where she was the recipient of the Mary P. Rigo Award for Outstanding Keyboard Major. She studied piano with Drs. Caroline Oltmanns and Kevin Orr, Dr. Timothy Ehlen at the Rencontres Musicales en Lorraine (Nancy, France), and with Mr. Jean-David Coen at the Aspen Music Festival. She earned an MM in piano pedagogy and a Ph.D. in historical musicology, with cognates in women鈥檚 studies and piano performance at the University of Florida where she received the John V. D鈥橝lbora Scholarship for Excellence in Graduate Research. Dr. Reitz鈥檚 monograph Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color (2018) was awarded the 2020 Pauline Alderman Award Book Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in Music from the International Alliance for Women in Music; the work was described as 鈥渨ell-conceived and richly executed鈥� with its 鈥渟tellar precision in music theoretic analysis.鈥� Additionally, the work was nominated for the American Musicology Society鈥檚 Music in American Culture Award and the ASCAP Foundation鈥檚 Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award. Dr. Reitz also authored the Caroline Shaw chapter in Women Making Art: Women in the Visual, Literary, and Performing Arts since 1960 (2nd edition). Peer-reviewed publications can be found in the North Carolina Literary Review, International Alliance for Women in Music Journal, American Music Teacher, Journal of Library Administration, Grove Dictionary of American Music, and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. She has also been published twice in the BBC Proms's composer profiles (2024, 2025). Her most recent publication can be found in Opera Magazine and a forthcoming publication is scheduled for Spring 2026 in the ITEA Journal. In the Spring of 2025, Dr. Reitz served as the guest presenter for Pittsburgh Opera's Workshop for Educators in preparation for the World Premiere of Jennifer Higdon's second opera Woman with Eyes Closed. Dr. Reitz served as Associate Editor for the International Alliance for Women in Music Journal as well as on the Board of Directors for the IAWM from 2021-2024. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Nineteenth Century Studies Association. Dr. Reitz has been nominated for the Faculty of the Year Award. She volunteers with the Adult Day Program at the Jackson County Department of Aging. Dr. Reitz founded the Punxsutawn-owhee Groundhog Chapter of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Education

Ph D, University of Florida
MM, University of Florida
BM, Youngstown State University

Teaching Interests

Dr. Reitz teaches Music History, American music, and upper level music literature courses. An essential aspect of Dr. Reitz鈥檚 teaching philosophy is information literacy in music scholarship. Her students have presented their research at the 蘑菇短视频Research and Scholarship Celebration (and its predecessor the Undergraduate Expo), the Graduate Research Symposium, the 蘑菇短视频Gender Conference, 蘑菇短视频Fall Humanities Conference, National Conferences on Undergraduate Research, and the SoCon Undergraduate Research Forum. Her students have penned the program notes for the 蘑菇短视频Wind Ensemble and the Artist-in-Residence Orchestra. Dr. Reitz has been nominated three times for the Excellence in Teaching Liberal Studies Award.

Research Interests

Dr. Reitz鈥檚 interests are women and American music; she has presented at peer-reviewed conferences that include, but are not limited to: Nineteenth Century Studies Association, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, National Popular Culture and American Cultural Association, College Music Society, LIVEWIRE Festival, Feminist Theory and Music 10 Conference, the American Comparative Literature Association, The Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale, and the Society for American Music. Writings for the public include The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, Music: The Definitive Visual History, and Composers Who Changed History for which she also served as Musicology Consultant.