Chris Burkhart (B.M. Temple University, M.M. Boston University) has been the director of bands at Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes, DE since 2013. Chris conducts the Cape wind bands, jazz ensembles, athletic bands and percussion ensemble. He also teaches music technology and music theory at Cape Henlopen. 

In Chris’s time at Cape the instrumental program has added a second wind band, a second jazz band and a percussion ensemble. Cape music ensembles regularly perform at concerts and festivals throughout Delaware and the wider Mid-Atlantic region. Cape Henlopen’s jazz ensembles perform annually at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival in Rockville, Maryland and at the True Blue Jazz Festival and Rehoboth Beach Jazz festivals in Coastal Delaware. Cape Jazz I was selected to perform for the NAfME Eastern Division Conference in Rochester, New York in 2023. 

Chris has been a member of the faculty at New England Music Camp since 2016 where he leads the Jazz Band and teaches in the jazz studies program. He previously held the position of Concert Band conductor at the camp. In addition to teaching, Chris performs as a freelance trumpet player in the Mid-Atlantic region. His prior positions include serving in the 78th Army Band where he was the musical director of the jazz band and performed in the brass quintet. Chris has studied jazz and classical trumpet performance with Sean Jones, Roger Sherman, John Thyhsen and Rodney Marsalis. He has previously held teaching positions at elementary and middle schools in Pennsylvania and Delaware.