Regina A. Harris Baiocchi (born 16 July 1956) is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician, music educator, composer and writer of short stories and poetry.

Life

Regina Harris was the third of eight children born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, to parents Elgie Harris Jr., and Lanzie Mozelle Belmont Harris. She was exposed to the arts from an early age, took guitar lessons at age nine and began composing at ten. She studied music in high school and church music programs, and graduated from Roosevelt University

Roosevelt University

Roosevelt University is a coeducational, private university with campuses in Chicago, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university is named in honor of both former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university's curriculum is based on...

 with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1978. She continued her studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology

Illinois Institute of Technology

Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...

, Northwest University

Northwest University

Northwest University is a regionally accredited, Christian coeducational institution offering a wide variety of associate, baccalaureate, master's and doctorate degrees...

, and graduated from New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 with a certificate in public relations in 1991 and from De Paul University with a Master of Music degree in 1995.

She married Gregory Baiocchi on July 12, 1975, and worked as a composer, writer, poet and high school teacher. From 1986-89, she worked as an audio quality control analyst for Telaction Corporation, and from 1989-94 as a public relations director for Catholic Theological Union

Catholic Theological Union

The Catholic Theological Union, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, is one of the largest schools of theology in the world and trains men and women for lay and clerical ministry within the Roman Catholic Church...

 in Chicago. After 2000, she was a lecturer at East-West University

East-West University

East-West University is a private, non-profit, non-denominational college in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood. The University was founded in 1980. East-West offers two and four year degrees and certificates...

.

Honors and awards

• Poets and Patrons Award for Poetry for Teeter Totter, and Ghetto Child, 1980s
• McDonald’s Literary Achievement Award, for Mama’s Will, 1988 *Illinois Arts Council grant, 1995
• Chicago Music Association award, 1995
• Art Institute of Chicago grant for Gbeldahoven: No One’s Child, 1997
• National Endowment for the Arts Regional Artists Program grant for African Hands, 1997

Works

Selected works include:

• Sketches: for piano trio
• Mama’s Will, 1988
• Gbeldahoven: No One’s Child, 1997
• African Hands, 1997