Chris Jenkins, viola

At Oberlin Conservatory, Christopher Jenkins is the Associate Dean for Academic Support, Conservatory Liaison to the Office of DEI, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology. Chris teaches courses on hip-hop and the racial politics of classical music and recently completed joint doctoral degrees, earning a DMA in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a PhD in musicology from Case Western Reserve University. 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. In fall 2025, his chamber group Linking Legacies will release its debut recording on Innova Records. Chris’ first book, Assimilation vs. Integration in Music Education, was published by Routledge Press and the College Music Society in 2023. He writes and consults regularly on the diversification of Western classical music, including recent presentations at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Susquehanna University, and conferences for the College Music Society and the Black Orchestral Network. Prior to arriving at Oberlin, Chris was Deputy Director and instructor of viola and violin at the Barenboim-Said Foundation in Ramallah, West Bank. As a security analyst, he has worked on projects for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Southeast Asian Affairs, the Global Engagement Center, and ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data). As a performer and teacher, his international work has included tours throughout Palestine, Lebanon, and Dubai; chamber music with Jordanian musicians at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Petra; and an appearance in Kabul, Afghanistan as a guest artist at the Afghan National Institute of Music. Alongside music theorist Philip Ewell, Chris is a co-founder and co-organizer for the Theorizing African-American Music conference, which celebrated its third convening at Emory University in June 2025. Chris is the winner of several awards for service, scholarship, and music performance, including 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.