Christina L. Reitz

Biography

<br>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 earned an MM in piano pedagogy and a Ph.D. in historical musicology, with cognates in women’s studies and piano performance at the University of Florida where she received the John V. D’Albora Scholarship for Excellence in Graduate Research.<br><br>Dr. Reitz’s monograph <i>Jennifer Higdon: Composing in Color </i>(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 “well-conceived and richly executed” with its “stellar precision in music theoretic analysis.” Additionally, the work was nominated for the American Musicology Society’s Music in American Culture Award and the ASCAP Foundation’s Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award. Dr. Reitz authored the Caroline Shaw chapter in <i>Women Making Art: Women in the Visual, Literary, and Performing Arts since 1960 </i>(2nd edition)<i>.</i> Peer-reviewed publications include the <i>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</i>. Her latest publication on Higdon's <i>Percussion Concerto </i>can be found in the 2023 issue of <i>Percussive Notes</i>. Her next article, a memorial tribute on Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is scheduled for publication in the forthcoming issue of the <i>International Alliance for Women in Music Journal.</i><br><br>In August 2021, Dr. Reitz became the Assistant Editor for the <i>International Alliance for Women in Music Journal. </i> She was subsequently promoted to Associate Editor for the journal in 2022 and began a term on the board of directors in January, 2022.<br><br>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 and St. Joseph Academy in Maggie Valley, NC.

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’s teaching philosophy is information literacy in music scholarship. Her students have presented their research at the WCU Research and Scholarship Celebration (and its predecessor the Undergraduate Expo), the Graduate Research Symposium, the WCU Gender Conference, WCU Fall Humanities Conference, National Conferences on Undergraduate Research, and the SoCon Undergraduate Research Forum. Her students have penned the program notes for the WCU 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’s 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 Incredible Nineteenth Century: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Fairy Tale, and the Society for American Music. Writings for the public include<i> The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, Music: The Definitive Visual History, </i>and the forthcoming <i>Composers Who Changed History </i>for which she also served as Musicology Consultant.<i> </i>