Rebekah Heller
conductor
Called "an impressive solo bassoonist" by The New Yorker, Rebekah Heller's career has focused on creating and sharing new music with a generosity of spirit that invites and welcomes new audiences at every turn. In 2018, Heller made her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic, and has been a featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony, at the Tokyo-based Born Creative Festival, at the TIME:SPANS festival, at Miller Theatre’s Composer Portrait concerts and many others.
Heller has been committed to championing the bassoon as a virtuosic and unique solo instrument, commissioning and recording two acclaimed full-length solo albums of new music written for and with her by a diverse community of composers. In 2024, she released a single with Steve Reich—a multi-track bassoon piece called Grand Street Counterpoint—on which Reich and Heller are co-producers. In June of that same year, Heller released her first solo EP featuring her own compositions, ONE, on Relative Pitch Records.
As bassoonist (since 2008), and former Co-Artistic Director of the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Heller has collaborated with hundreds of composers worldwide to make countless new pieces come to life as a co-conspirator in the creative process. And as comfortable as she is playing the gnarliest of notated new musics, Heller is just as comfortable in the free improvisation space, collaborating with artists from across the musical spectrum at venues like NYC’s experimental music hub, The Stone.
As a conductor, Heller is an exciting force on the podium. She regularly leads the International Contemporary Ensemble, and has conducted the New World Symphony and the Helsinki Metropolitan Orchestra, among others, "marvelously" (I care if you listen) and with "...turn-on-a-dime energy" (The New Yorker).
Heller has been on the faculty of The Mannes School of Music at The New School since 2019, where she leads a bassoon studio, co-chairs the wind department, and teaches classes in contemporary repertoire and improvisation for classical musicians.