CHRISTINA MORRIS, CONDUCTOR

​Christina Morris is a young, energetic, and passionate conductor. Christina was recently appointed as Assistant Conductor as a part of the Chineke! Orchestra’s 2024-2025 Assistant Conductor Scheme. She began conducting at the age of 16 leading orchestra rehearsals in high school. In 2017, she composed a piece titled “Bold Intentions” and went on to perform the piece with her high school orchestra. After this, she was inspired to pursue her creativity through orchestral conducting. Once entering college, Christina was determined to study conducting each semester, asking every professor at her school for office hours and study sessions. She was admitted to enter the schools conducting courses early, but she didn’t stop there. Christina made sure to make the most out every off season, making sure to apply to conducting programs over the summer and winter months. In 2018, just after her freshman year of college, she was 

chosen to be one the conducting apprentices with The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. During this apprenticeship she studied closely with Maestro James Ross and received masterclasses with the groups guest conductor, Maestro Micheal Tilson Thomas.

During the summer of 2019, she was accepted to the Miami Music Music festival. There she studied closely with Maestro Mark Gibson. In the winter of 2020, Christina was accepted to the Monteux Music Festival’s winter conducting series and was mentored by the late Maestro Micheal Jinbo. Later that same year, she was accepted into the Tanglewood Music Festival as a conducting seminarian. During the pandemic she participated in the program via online sessions. In 2021 she was invited to attend the campus in person and was the only seminarian to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival that summer aside from the two invited fellows. In her senior year of college, she received grant funding and organized a concert for “Equity and Equality” which featured contemporary works by a diverse range of composers. In this concert, she used her grant funds to provide payed commissions to a composition student, a composer alumni, and a composition professor at the Crane School of Music. The concert also included published works by 20th, and 21st century composers. She also payed the student orchestra that she organized. In 2022 she was invited again to participate in the seminar with a larger formal cohort of other young talented conductors. 

Additionally in the spring of 2022, Christina was formally invited to attend a Masterclass with the New World Symphony led by Maestro Neeme Järvi. In the Fall of 2022, she was invited to attend yet another masterclass with the New World Symphony led by Maestro Micheal Tilson Thomas himself. In 2023, Christina was accepted into a masterclasses hosted at Juilliard led by Maestro Mark Shapiro. She attended the concerto, and aria/recitative masterclasses led by Maestro Mark Shapiro in the summer of 2024 as well. Christina has also studied with Maestro Shapiro privately in 2023 to early 2024. In the Spring of 2024 Christina participated in a masterclass hosted by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was guided in a masterclass by Meastra Lina González-Granados. Christina’s most recent opportunity was participating as the New Music Conducting Fellow for the 2024 Composers Conference. She conducted several contemporary works in concert and even commissioned several works composed by the participating composer fellows. During this fellowship, she worked closely with Maestro Vimbayi Kaziboni.

Christina is also passionate about performing with arts organizations as a freelance conductor and bassist. Since the Spring of 2020 she worked as assistant conductor and occasional bassist for Maestra Michelle Rofrano and her founded organization titled PROTESTRA. She also has guest conducted concerts hosted by a New York based organization called Sound Off: Music for Bail, led by Jay Julio. She was asked to conduct a pop up orchestral performance at the National Museum of African American History and Culture for a ceremony honoring the first black owned stock companies in America. In 2023 she was asked to guest conductor a concert with the Multicultural Music Group in celebration for Afro-descendants in the Americas. Christina also likes to share her knowledge through music education. In the spring of 2020 she served a Music Education Director for a nonprofit organization called Strings4smilesNYC. She currently teaches private lessons for all string instruments, piano, and music theory at the New York Musicians Center at two locations on Long Island. Christina earned her Bachelors degree in Music Theory with a concentration in String Bass from the Crane School of Music in 2021.