Leon Burke
Featured
on New Music Arizona
Concert, June
20, 2010, 3:00 PM
Leading the Choir Academy
and the Adult Choral
Workshop
Leon Burke, III is one of the busiest
conductors in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Born in
St. Louis, he attended the Oberlin Conservatory and
pursued further study that culminated in the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree at the University of Kansas. He
has conducted at the Aspen Music Festival and the
Shenandoah Valley Music Festival and studied with many
important conductors including Sir Georg Solti,
Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, and Jorge Mester. He
has been a Fulbright Fellow.
Burke is currently the Music Director of the University
City Symphony, Assistant Director of the St. Louis Symphony
Chorus and is one of the cover conductors for the St. Louis
Symphony. He also conducts the Cadenza Orchestra of the St.
Charles County Youth Orchestra Program and is the Music
Director of the Belleville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He
is also the Choir Director for Eliot Chapel in Kirkwood. A
multifaceted musician, Leon Burke is also on the faculties
of St. Louis University and East Central College in Union,
Missouri teaching voice. Outside of St. Louis, he is the
Principal Guest Conductor of the Asuncion Symphony in
Paraguay and Conductor of the Metropolitan Ballet of
Topeka.
Though very active as an instrumental conductor, Burke is
also in demand as a choral conductor and has worked with
some of the great choral conductors in the United States
such as Dale Warland, Amy Kaiser and Jo-Michael Scheibe. In
2007 he conducted the 200-voice GA Choir at the Unitarian
Universalist General Assembly in Portland, Oregon. During
the recent season, he has conducted the St. Louis Symphony
and its InUnison Chorus in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy for
its Black History Month Celebration concert and he has been
the Director of Choruses at St. Louis University. He holds
several awards for his work in the local musical theater
scene as a Music Director and this past April conducted
Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with the Midwest Lyric Opera in
Jefferson City, Missouri.