Music Director

Samantha Burgess

Interim Music Director, Community Women’s Orchestra

San Francisco-based conductor Samantha Burgess is Assistant Conductor for both the Berkeley Symphony and the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. In the 2024-2025 season, she will join the Oakland Community Women’s Orchestra as Interim Music Director. Previously, she held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Westerville Symphony (OH), the Galesburg Community Chorus (IL), and the Oxford University Philharmonia (UK).

Samantha holds masters’ degrees in Orchestral Conducting and Music Theory from The Ohio State University, where she was Music Director of the Ohio State Community Orchestra and Assistant Conductor for the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra. While at OSU, she was also a graduate teaching assistant in Music Theory and a member of the Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory. On the podium, Samantha combines conducting with her background in music cognition research to develop innovative, multimedia performances. She has presented her research at the Society for Music Theory Midwest Conference, Future Directions of Music Cognition, and the Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference.

Samantha has conducted in masterclasses and competitions in the USA and abroad—notably in September 2023, when she finished as a semi-finalist in the International Academy and Competition for Orchestral Conducting in Portugal. She has also participated in the George Hurst Conductor’s Course at the Sherborne Summer School of Music, the London Conducting Workshop, the New York Conducting Workshop, and the International Conducting Workshop and Competition in Atlanta, GA. 

Former Conductors

Martha Stoddard (2021-2024)

Emily Ray, Guest Conductor (2020-2021)

Dana Sadava (2014–2020)

Dr. Kathleen McGuire (2005–2013)

Martha Stoddard, interim conductor (2004–2005)

Barbara Christmann, interim conductor (2003-2004)

Ann Krinitsky (1990–2002)

Nan Washburn, founder (1985–1990)