2026 Women of Live: Rebekah Foster

Rebekah Foster
Ujima Sound Productions Ltd. | Owner & CEO

“Rebekah is the consummate professional. Her ability to remain calm in the eye of the storm is exactly why newly inducted Hall of Fame group A Tribe Called Quest and legendary Rock & Roll Hall of Famer – and arguably the greatest living musician – Stevie Wonder call on her when they need one of the very best on their shows.” — Geoffrey Walker, Founder, Kickstand World LLC

There’s no one quite like Rebekah Foster in the music industry. She’s not only a pioneering audio engineer with unbelievable recording credits spanning eras and genres, she also excels as a live production manager, prominent tour manager and a mentor to kids in New York City.

“I’m a multifaceted woman,” she says humbly. “That’s how I describe myself.”

After interning at studios, she landed a job at a sound company with a diverse clientele that helped her gain a wide variety of experience early on.

“They did jazz gigs, they did Turkish gigs, they did Persian gigs, they did Spanish gigs,” she remembers. “That sound company did everything!”

Foster, who is from the Bronx, always thinks of we rather than me. In fact, it is built right into the mission of her business and in her faith.

“The name of my company, Ujima Sound Productions, is a Kwanzaa principle of collective work and responsibility,” she explains.
Foster is the only person who can say she has worked with Sarah Vaughn, Sonny Rollins, Tony Bennett, Dizzy Gillespie and The Legends Tour (Eric Clapton, Steve Gadd, David Sanborn and Joe Sample), as well as Boogie Down Productions, Lauryn Hill, Whitney Houston, Naughty By Nature and A Tribe Called Quest, just to touch on a few of the memorable moments on her resume.

To be honest, though, she doesn’t need an actual resume ever for her phone to keep ringing for both live and recorded projects.
Ever a student, Foster has endeavored to learn as many different aspects of the live industry as possible to become the best production and tour manager possible. She has worked at venues including Carnegie Hall and The Apollo Theater as well as with top global festivals like Glastonbury and Lollapalooza. She’s on the advisory board of Roadies of Color, which works to promote a more inclusive live music industry.

Last year, Foster worked with Stevie Wonder as his production manager for his FireAid performance at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, a gig that required saving the starstruck feelings until after it ended.

“It’s the soundtrack of your life. Like, you remember Stevie Wonder from when you came out of the womb. So I had to put in my head that this is just another gig and totally just not look at him as Stevie Wonder,” she says. “Just, this is another gig. I’ve got to get it done and make it happen. And then later, deal with the mind-blowing part of it.”

She continues to further the legacy of her father, pastor, theater person and city councilman the Rev. Wendell Foster, at Christ Church in the Bronx, where she is a member who takes care of day-to-day operations and the food pantry. Whether in the church or with Ujima Sound Productions, mentoring young adults has long been important to Foster.

“From the beginning, I’ve always taken on interns,” she says, “younger people who either don’t know what they want to do, don’t know this industry or are interested in music. It’s like the NBA: 600 on-court jobs, but it takes thousands to make that run. So we teach the other parts of the music industry other than being on a mic or on a stage as a performer.

“We’ve done that in all the years, taking interns on, and then when possible, when the budget allows, carried them on the tours to see that there’s more than their zip code or even their four block radius,” she adds. “We’ve been successful in taking a lot of kids. We’ve done a lot, and we’ve got people still working in the industry. There are others that chose not to be in the industry, but are flourishing in their careers outside of it. Or doing marketing or record label stuff, that type of thing.” She recalls one intern who now is doing well in the field of T-shirts and live merchandise.

Foster continues to have extraordinary longevity in the live music business because she’s kind and helps others to unlock their personal potential.

“Kindness costs you nothing,” she says. “You have to treat people the way you want to be treated, for sure.”

Foster loves what she does, and never wants to stop.

“I love the fact that I can be instrumental in bringing music to people,” she says. “That means something to me. Because, to me, music is love.”