Christina Littlejohn’s professional career includes starting and building the Mobile
Symphony (AL), launching The Cleveland Orchestra’s Miami Residency, and navigating the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra from near bankruptcy in 2009 to an artistically and financially healthy orchestra that puts service to its state first. The Arkansas Symphony raised $11.75M to build the new ASO Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, a radically welcoming hub of musical activity for all Arkansans, which will open in September 2024. During the Pandemic, the ASO reached over a million people in over thirty countries with its “Bedtime with Bach” series, kept all full-time musicians and staff employed, and continued its education programs and even expanded them to serve more students across the state. Christina was recently recognized by the state with the 2023 Governor’s Arts Award for Community Development.

A cellist, she earned a BA from Furman University and an MBA and MA from the
University of Cincinnati/Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She has enjoyed leadership development training at the business schools of Stanford University, University of Michigan, and Harvard through National Arts Strategies.

In 2017, she gave a TedX talk titled “Transform a Symphony, Change a Community,” and is a frequent speaker on the topics of Governance and Leading through Change.