Christina Hornbach is a professor of music and director of music education at Hope College. She has presented workshops at the state, regional and national MENC/NAfME in-service conferences, as well as local and international venues. She has published her work in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Listen to Their Voices: Research and Practice in Early Childhood Music, Learning from Young Children: Research in Early Childhood Music, and the Michigan Music Educator. She has served as president of the Michigan Music Education Association.

Hornbach specializes in early childhood and elementary general music methods and materials. She has taught general music in the public schools in Michigan and Minnesota as well as early childhood music at Michigan State University’s Community Music School and Eastern Michigan University’s Community Music Academy.

Hornbach also founded an early childhood music program, Early Bird Music, in West Michigan. She has taught as visiting faculty at Radford University, SUNY: Buffalo and Michigan State University. She is currently serving as editor of Audea: A Journal for Research and Applications of Music Learning Theory.

AREAS OF expertise

• Elementary music education methods and materials
• Early childhood music methods and materials
• Choral music methods and materials
• Philosophy of music
• Psychology of music
• Research in music education
• Vocal arts & performance, music history, music theory

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2005
• M.M., the University of Michigan, 1996
• B.M., University of Michigan, 1993

HONORS, GRANTS & AWARDS

• 2017, Michigan Music Education Association Award of Merit
• 2008–2015, Patrons for the Arts
• 2012, Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant
• 2011, Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty/Student Collaborative Development Grant
• 2010, Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant
• 2009, Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant
• 2008, Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant
• 2005, MSU Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship

 Published work

• “Singing and tonal audiation from early childhood to secondary,” in C. Conway (Ed.), Musicianship-Focused Curriculum and Assessment, Chicago, GIA, 2015
• “Building community to elicit responses in early childhood music classes,” in S. Burton & C. Taggart (Eds.), Learning from young children: Research in early childhood music, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011
• “The use of silence in eliciting student responses in early childhood music classes,” in K. Smithrim & R. Upitis (Eds.), Listen to their voices: Research and practice in early childhood music, Toronto: CMEA Books, 2007
• “The relationship between developmental tonal aptitude and singing achievement among kindergarten, first-, second-, and third-grade children,” with Taggart, C., Journal of Research in Music Education, 53(4), 2005
• “A response to Masafumi Ogawa’s ‘Music Teacher Education in Japan: Structure, Problems, and Perspectives,’” Philosophy of Music Education Review, 12(2), 2004