Finding herself in music

Dr. Kristina Rizzotto

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com

Composer, pianist and organist Kristina Rizzotto says she has “known that I’m transgender all my life.” And she always wanted to play music in church. But, having grown up in Brazil in a conservative Roman Catholic environment, and where the transgender people she met were either sex workers or hairdressers, she said, “I didn’t know if it was something the church would allow.”

She discovered that playing in church was definitely possible for her, and this weekend, Rizzotto is participating in a Transgender Day of Remembrance concert at Northaven United Methodist Church on Sunday, Nov. 16. She’ll participate in the morning service and talk about coming out as transgender, then, in the afternoon, she will perform on Northaven’s pipe organ.

Rizzotto said she started playing organ in church during her senior year in high school. Then she began working on her bachelor of music in piano performance in Rio de Janeiro, learning a classical repertoire on the pipe organ the next year.

She spent one year as an exchange student in North Carolina before returning to Rio, where she became the organist at the Benedictine Abbey. The abbey was founded in 1590 and is home to the oldest working pipe organ in South America.

But Rizzotto wanted to return to the U.S. to transition, so she began working on her doctor of musical arts degree in organ performance at the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma — probably not the best place to choose to transition in the U.S.

By that time, she had met her wife, also a Brazilian woman. In 2016, they moved to Minneapolis where her wife started work as a professor at University of Minnesota and Rizzotto as music director at a Catholic parish.

A few years later, Rizzotto said, she was forced to resign her position at the church “after being denounced for my behavior outside of the church by an anonymous parishioner.”

But within a few weeks, she found a position as director of music at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church where she’s found herself welcomed and where she still works.

Identity and music
Rizzotto said that being a musician and being transgender had nothing to do with each other. But, at the same time, being transgender and being a musician had everything to do with each other.

“My transition affected my playing,” she said, explaining that when she was a student, an advisor told her that she “wasn’t connecting to my music. On the day I defended my dissertation, he bluntly told me, ‘I noticed you look different.’”

She said the advisor told her, “When you let go and embrace who you are, you will play more and find a connection that is missing. You might connect to the music more.”

Now that she has transitioned and embraced her identity, Rizzotto said, “I might be more present. I’m more expressive now. I started composing more. Something was unleashed.”
Rizzotto recently celebrated her 10th wedding anniversary, and she and her wife have three children — ages 8, 4 and 2.

While she’s outspoken on social media and often dresses in period costume to match the music she’s playing in her music videos, Rizzotto said Sunday’s performance at Northaven marks the first time for her to perform at a transgender event.

She said she’s looking forward to the event and is basing her choice of music on the kind of organ at Northaven UMC.

“All pipe organs are unique,” Rizzotto explained, and Northaven’s is built in the Germanic style. So she plans to play some Bach and other German composers on the instrument as well as some of her own compositions. n

Northaven Church is at 11211 Preston Road. Morning service is at 11 a.m. The organ recital is at 2 p.m. Many of her compositions and performances can be found at KristinaRizzotto.com and on her YouTube channel.

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Say Their Names

rans Lives Matter, on its “Remembering Our Dead” website, lists 63 transgender individuals lost to violence or to suicide between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025. Worldwide, that number jumps to 354, with only Brazil recording more reports — 86 — than the U.S.
Of those lost in the U.S., 34 were victims of violence. Those victims include:

• Honee Walker, 37, who was run over in Rochester, N.Y., on Oct. 2, 2024.
• Rick Alastor Newman, 29, who was shot to death Oct. 17, 2024, in Bozeman, Mont.
• San Coleman, 48, who was murdered Oct. 20, 2024, in Athens, Ga.
• Jay Floris, 23, who was run over Oct. 24, 2024, in Stockton, Calif.
• Kyla Jane Walker, 39, who was run over Nov. 10, 2024, in Austin.
• Quanesha “Cocoa” Shantel, 25, who was shot to death Nov. 10, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C.
• Ra’lasia Wright, 25, who was shot to death in Minneapolis.
• Cam Thompson, 18, who was shot to death Dec. 16, 2024, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
• Johnny Adamow, 29, who was shot to death Dec. 31, 2024, in Seattle.
• Aubrey Damron, 25, who was murdered Jan. 31, 2025, in Ottowa County, Okla.
• Tahiry Broom, 29, who was shot to death Feb. 11, 2025, in Southfield, Mich.
• Sam Nordquist, 24, who was tortured and beaten to death Feb. 14, in Canandaigua, N.Y.
• Ervianna Johnson, 25, who was shot to death Feb. 16, 2025, in Tabor City, N.C.
• Amyri Dior, 23, who was shot to death Feb. 21, 2025, in Milwaukee.
• Linda Becerra Moran, 30, who was shot to death Feb. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles.
• Kaitoria Le’Cynthia “Kai” Bankz, 31, who was shot to death March 31, 2025, in Autaugaville, Ala.
• Kelsey Elem, 25, who was shot to death April 24, 2025, in St. Louis.
• Shy’Parius Dupree, 32, who was shot to death May 15, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn.
• Karmin Wells, 25, who was shot to death in Detroit.
• Jonathan Joss, 59, a cisgender man shot to death June 1, 2025, in San Antonio while defending his transgender partner.
• Hope Lyca Youngblood, 49, who was run over June 7, 2025, in Los Angeles.
• Laura Schueler, 47, who was shot to death June 7, 2025, in Cincinnati.
• JJ Godbey, 26, who was murdered June 19, 2025, in Canton, Ohio.
• Christina Hayes, 28, who was strangled to death June 21, 2025, in Detroit.
• Kamora Woods, 27, who was shot to death June 27, 2025, in Indianapolis.
• Dream Johnson, 28, who was shot to death July 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
• Rosa Machuca, 24, who was shot to death Aug. 11, 2025, in Austin.
• Blair A. Sawyer, 27, who was run over Aug. 11, 2025, in Louisville, Ken.
• Onyx Cornish, 18, who was shot to death Aug. 18, 2025, in Caldwell, Idaho.
• Kasi “Kaeyy Holmes” Rhea, 31, who was shot to death Aug. 18, 2025, in Lynchburg, Va.
• Tiara Love Tori Jackson, 37, who was shot to death Sept. 26, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C.