Northwest Sinfonietta is delighted to welcome Rebekah O’Brien to our stage for our TAKE A HIKE! (with Beethoven) Family Concert.

Rebekah designed this wonderful program celebrating nature through Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, and we are thrilled to bring it to you, our South Sound community!

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Rebekah Kathleen O’Brien serves as director of orchestras at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and has led the Lancaster, York, Altoona and Williamsport Symphony Orchestras in concert. After traveling to Chile to conduct the Chamber Orchestra of the Municipal de Santiago in a festival highlighting women conductors, she founded the New Ground Orchestra Festival, dedicated to supporting health and community for professional musicians. Awards include the Williamson Fellowship of the Arts and winning the International Conducting Competition with the Denver Philharmonic. In March of 2026, Rebekah will be making her European debut conducting the Virago Symphonic Orchestra in Belgium.

Supporting the growth of young musicians, Ms. O’Brien regularly appears as a guest conductor for educational festivals. Passionate about bringing music to a wide variety of communities, she has taken her orchestras on tours of Europe and inside the walls of high security prisons. Ms. O’Brien is thankful for the examples and foundation provided by her teachers: Maestros Gerardo Edelstein, Murry Sidlin, and Simeone Tartaglione. Also trained in the art of Eurythmy, Ms. O’Brien teaches at the Susquehanna Waldorf School in Marietta, PA. To keep herself grounded, she can be found under the hood of a car, learning from her supportive husband, Jeff Erickson. Rebekah lives in State College, Pennsylvania, with her family and inspiring daughter, Genavieve.