Anna Celenza is a professor at Johns Hopkins University, where she holds a joint appointment in The Writing Seminars (KSAS) and Musicology Department (Peabody Conservatory). She is the author of eight award-winning children’s books, including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony, and Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite. She has also published six scholarly books in music, including Music and Human Flourishing, Jazz Italian Style (winner of the Bridge Book Prize) and The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin. Her newest book project, On the Record: Music that Changed America, was published by W.W. Norton in March 2026.