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Cynthia
Kortman Westphal
M.M., B.M.
Cynthia Kortman Westphal
EFP: 2016
EMT: 2017
Specialties: Singing
Languages: English


Cynthia Kortman Westphal is a music director, voice teacher, vocal coach, and professor who is equally comfortable in both the professional Broadway community, and the academic world. 

Most recently, Cynthia music directed the first North American tour of Come From Away. With her husband and two children in tow, she conducted over 400 performances in over 30 cities across the US and Canada. Additional Broadway shows include: The Lion King, (where she was an original company member, associate music director, conductor, and keyboard player for seven years), A Christmas Story—the Musical (written by former students Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), The Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm, and Miss Saigon.

Regionally, she has music directed at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, where she was part of the very first all-female creative team in the history of that historic theatre with a production of Man of La Mancha. Additional regional theatre work includes Randy Newman’s Faust at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, as well as productions at Hartford Stage Company, and Arizona Theatre Company. She has also developed and music directed new musicals with rock bands Air Supply, and the Eagles.

She toured as a pianist with opera singer Andrea Bocelli on two U.S. tours, and has been an orchestral pianist for many other orchestras including American Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, and EOS Orchestra.

As a local keyboard player, she has played for over a dozen Broadway national tours including: Wicked, Sister Act, In the Heights, Spamalot, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the 25th anniversary tour of Les Miserables, Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The King and I, and Annie.

She is a tenured faculty member in the University of Michigan’s prestigious musical theatre department where she teaches performance classes, works one-on-one with singers, and created a rock/pop vocal styles class. She is also a faculty member for MPulse, a summer high school training program based at the University of Michigan, and for Kristin Chenoweth’s Broadway Bootcamp, a summer training program for middle and high school students. She is a Certified Master Trainer in Estill Voice Training.  

In 2021, Cynthia co-founded Broadway Vocal Coach, an online vocal training membership for professional and aspiring professional singing actors. In 2022, BVC expanded to include year-long training programs for high school students, as well as a four month intensive for high school seniors applying to college musical theatre programs. 

While Cynthia wears many hats, she is passionate about working with singers—especially in helping them discover their ability to sing in the multitude of vocal styles that are happening today—and her current and former students can be seen in nearly every Broadway musical each season, as well as in regional theaters across the country, and in film and TV.  








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