Christina Courtin

Christina Courtin is an American violinist, singer and composer, a Juilliard graduate whose music blends indie singer-songwriter craft with a classically trained ear. Her piece Rhapsody on Being Giant-Proof, premiered with the chamber orchestra the Knights, sets her own singing within an orchestral fabric, part song, part orchestral tone poem, evoking small, private moments inside ordinary daily journeys.

Courtin's music sits between song and orchestral writing: a vocal line, often her own voice, carries a melody that feels closer to a folk or singer-songwriter tune than to a classical aria, while the surrounding strings and orchestra build a shifting, atmospheric backdrop around it. In Rhapsody on Being Giant-Proof, the orchestra doesn't simply accompany the voice but folds around it, sometimes echoing a phrase, sometimes pulling away into its own instrumental commentary, so the piece moves fluidly between intimate, almost conversational passages and fuller orchestral swells. Harmonies favor warm, open sonorities over dense modernist writing, and rhythms often have a loose, spoken-word feel rather than a strict beat. The mood stays personal and reflective throughout, built around small, everyday images rather than a grand narrative, and the piece tends to fade rather than build to a big finish.