Rebecca Burkhardt
Conductor, composer, Rebecca Burkhardt is sought after as a guest conductor for professional and educational orchestras throughout the United States and abroad. She served as the Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Northern Iowa from 1988-2020. Dr. Burkhardt’s compositions are wide-ranging including works in the choral, chamber music, orchestral, and musical theatre genres. Her commissions include incidental music for The Laramie Project and Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Where Sky, Where Pilgrim for choral ensemble, BluesWomenTryptich for string trio, Fanfare for a First Lady composed in honor of Michelle Obama’s UNI commencement address and most recently, Ballet for Cello and Orchestra written for Hannah Holman, to be premiered in 2026. A Scotch Verdict, her musical written in collaboration with Cynthia Goatley, was presented in a concert performance as a part of Stages, a new musical festival sponsored by Theatre Building Chicago. It was revised in 2024 thanks to a generous residency at Drama Club Camp. Her newest musical, Just Ann, another collaboration with Goatley, is based on the life of Texas Governor Ann Richards.
From Dialogue of the Carmelites and Madame Butterfly to Fiddler on the Roof and HAIR, her opera and theatre performances encompass the gamut of music-drama and musical comedy. She has appeared as guest conductor with orchestras nationally and internationally. She has performed with solo artists Wen Wei, Simon Estes, Sheri Greenawald, Fei Xie, Lan Weiwei, Laurie Smukler, Elizabeth Adkins, and Helen Callus among many others. Burkhardt has worked closely with composers-in-residence Michael Daugherty, Dan Welcher, Libby Larsen, Ao Xiang, Sam Adler and Jake Heggie. Recently she conducted the premiere of The Suffragist, a new musical by Nancy Cobb and Cavan Hallman, featuring Nancy Opel. A native of Texas, Burkhardt currently lives in Santa Fe, NM.