In the Loop
Alumni News : Jul 21, 2017

SOM alumna publishes article on Cold Mountain

Christina L. Reitz, associate professor of music at Western Carolina University (MM '02, Ph.D., historical musicology '07), published her article “Cold Mountain: A Journey from Frazier’s Magnus Opus to Higdon’s Magnum Opera” in The North Carolina Literary Review, a peer-reviewed journal.

Reitz was invited to write the feature article based on her presentation given for the Society for American Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Cold Mountain” was composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon and is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. Premiered at the Santa Fe Opera and with a subsequent production by Opera Philadelphia, “Cold Mountain” will be presented by the North Carolina Opera in Raleigh on Thursday, Sept. 28, and Sunday, Oct. 1.

Reitz will moderate a question-and-answer session with Higdon and Frazier at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill on Saturday, Sept. 30. The compositional history, detailed analysis and critical reception of the opera are explored in great detail as the final two chapters of Reitz’s forthcoming book due out later this year through McFarland Press.