Dr. Yvette Adam Burdick brings people together through music, inspiring novices and veterans alike to discover their capacity to bring music to life and share it with others. As a conductor and teacher, Yvette is known for challenging singers to perform at their best while learning more about music and building community. She has enjoyed a wide breadth of music leadership responsibilities over the course of more than thirty years as a music professional and is grateful to have found such a warm and welcoming home in the Skagit Valley Chorale, which she has conducted since 2014.

 

Yvette’s musical studies took her to the University of Puget Sound (BA Music, BA English Literature), University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (MM Choral Conducting), and University of Washington (DMA Choral Conducting). “These brief facts don’t begin to convey the years of stories – the experiences, and the places, and the people who made them meaningful.”

 

At North Seattle College Yvette taught the internationally diverse College Choir, preparing novice singers for exuberant and heartfelt performances of choral music while teaching lessons about singing, musicianship, shared expression and artistry, leadership, and teamwork. Her online “Music in the United States” class at NSC introduced students to the complex weaving of musical influences in our shared musical history, teaching them to listen for core musical elements and to investigate their historical and cultural contexts. Yvette’s many years on the faculty at the Midsummer Musical Retreat have been marked by adventurous musical exploration and the warmly supportive and joyful teaching that is such an important part of that music camp’s philosophy.

 

Yvette is a skilled singer with experience and interest in many genres of music. She enjoyed being on stage in musical theatre and opera productions as well as stage-directing Gilbert & Sullivan productions and conducting opera and musical theatre at Shoreline College and elsewhere. Yvette is a proficient user of music technology including Sibelius music notation software and LogicPro, the digital audio workstation (a recording studio on your computer). She has recorded and edited many multi-track choral recordings to assist the Chorale’s music learning and produced several “session-choir” recordings of the Chorale during the pandemic.

 

Yvette is now taking on a new role as Executive Director of the Center of Dependable Strengths, advocating the Dependable Strengths process that guides participants to understand how their good experiences in life reveal their unique strengths and helps them communicate who they are at their best in their own words. She looks forward to sharing this life-changing process with a growing audience.