Artistic Director – Barbara Landis
Barbara has been the General and Artistic Director of Chamber Opera Chicago since 2005. She recently adapted and created an original musical drama based on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which first premiered at the Athenaeum Theatre in 2011 and has toured to New York City, England, and Scotland the past four summers, including performances at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She received critical praise for her portrayal of Baba in Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera The Medium with COC in 2005, a role she also covered and studied with the composer at the 2002 Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. Ms. Landis can be heard on Cedelle Records’ The Medium starring Joyce Castle with Chicago Opera Theater. In 2003, she sang in recitals at the Spoleto Festival and then in 2004 in Modena, Italy. She has sung roles with Komische Oper München (Munich Comic Opera) in Germany and while studying at the Britten-Pears School in England, she sang the role of Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), which was taped for broadcast by the BBC. Barbara has also specialized in roles with a Spanish flair. She has performed the role of Carmen with numerous opera companies including Chamber Opera Chicago, Opera North Theater, American Opera Group, in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Opera and the San Francisco Lyric, and in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra in the Dominican Republic. She has portrayed the role of Aldonze in Man of La Mancha with COC, in the Colorado Lyric Theatre Festival, and throughout the midwest. Other roles for which she has received critical acclaim include Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and many of the Gilbert and Sullivan mezzo-soprano roles such as Katisha in The Mikado, Mad Margaret in Ruddigore, and Ruth in Pirates of Penzance with Light Opera Works; Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore with da Corneto Opera; the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with both DuPage Opera Theatre and COC; and the Secretary in The Consul (a role she also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago Guild), the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Erika in Vanessa, Jane Austen in the original musical Pride and Prejudice, Maria in The Sound of Music, and Jane Austen/Anne Elliot in Persuasion with Chamber Opera Chicago. Barbara participated in the review Cheers from Chawton at the 2010 Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England. She also performed at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of her premiere role in advancing culture and education in the arts.

General Manager/Artistic Administrator –
Kerri Rosenberg Burkhardt
Kerri assisted Ms. Landis in the adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and in editing the script. She accompanied Ms. Landis to England to do research for the project, where she also photographed many of the projected images used in the production. She was instrumental in arranging tours of Persuasion to England and New York City in 2013, the UK in 2014, and Scotland in 2015, where performances included the prestigious 2015 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Scotland and England in 2016. Kerri received her B.A. and M.A. in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa, where she also completed coursework for the Doctorate of Musical Arts. She has sung with the Zurich International Opera Studio in Switzerland, the Zurich Opera (singing with conductors such as Nello Santi and Nikolaus Harnoncourt), the University of Iowa Opera Theater, and Muddy River Opera, among others. Her favorite leading roles have included Nedda/I Pagliacci, Mimi/La Boheme, Marenka/The Bartered Bride, Blanche and Constance in different productions of Dialogues of the Carmelites, Felice/Die vier Grobiane, Adina/L’Elisir d’Amore, Zerlina/Don Giovanni, Helena/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Frasquita/Carmen, Casilda/The Gondoliers, and Mabel/ Pirates of Penzance. She has soloed with many symphonies and choruses throughout the United States and Europe and has performed in recital with Simon Estes. As a finalist in the Miss America Pageant, she also performed "Ah, je veux vivre" from Gounod's Romeo and Juliet on national television. Previously, Kerri was the Director of Auditions and Admissions for the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, where she worked for 14 years. She and her husband, Brian, are the proud parents of Brandon and Karissa Burkhardt, who have performed frequently with Chamber Opera Chicago.