Event Calendar
Copland’s Fanfare & Brahms
Sunday, March 09, 2025, 2:00 pm
Diane Wittry, conductor
Deanna Breiwick, soprano
John Brancy, baritone
Allentown Symphony Chorus | Eduardo Azzati, chorus master
AARON COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Dona Nobis Pacem featuring the poetry of Walt Whitman
JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 4
ARTIST BIOS
EDUARDO AZZATI
Eduardo Azzati (he, him, his) is a versatile musician with 35+ years of experience as voice instructor, vocal coach, choral and instrumental conductor, singer, music educator and keyboardist.
During the late 80’s and 90’s he gained popularity as a soloist and choral conductor in his homeland, Argentina, where he directed many choral and orchestral ensembles and sang with important orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra.
During the 10-year period between 1987 and 1997, while still in Argentina, Mr. Azzati held many positions as a choral director in many different settings, including Elementary, Middle and High School, church and community. Among other positions Mr. Azzati was the Associate Conductor of the award-winning National Youth Choir of Argentina, Director of Choral Activities and Conductor of the award-winning choirs at the K-12 St. Agnes School, Director of Choral Activities and Conductor at the K-12 St. Andrew's School, Artistic Director and Conductor of Grupo Coral Kantus, a college-age youth community chorus, and Director of the Chorale de L’Alliance Française of Martínez.
As a solo singer Mr. Azzati has performed many bass/baritone solo roles in many of the great sacred choral-orchestral works of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, etc. as well as the art songs of the German, French, British, American and Spanish repertoires. He also feels a strong connection with, passion and love for American Music Theater literature, and has taught it for decades.
Mr. Azzati has thirty years of experience teaching voice in the private studio setting as well as at the collegiate level. His teaching philosophy and approach are founded on the anatomical and physiological principles and mechanics of voice function and their specific application to the different music genres and styles. He’s a firm believer in the old Italian adage “si canta come si parla” (“we sing like we speak”), which has a foundation on speech and language leading the act of singing.
Mr. Azzati has been on the music faculty at Muhlenberg College since 2017 and is currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Music, Artistic Director and Conductor of the College Choir and the Chamber Choir, and Instructor of applied voice.
He is also the Chorus Master of the Allentown Symphony Chorus and has prepared the chorus for performances of Mozart Requiem, Beethoven 9th Symphony, Orff Carmina Burana and Mahler 2nd (Resurrection) Symphony, Rutter Gloria, Gershwin Porgy and Bess and many other choral projects.
In addition, Mr. Azzati is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Pennsylvania Camerata Singers.
Between 1999 and 2023 Mr. Azzati was the Director of Music at Yardley United Methodist Church, in Yardley, PA. During his 24-year tenure at Yardley UMC Mr. Azzati directed and accompanied adult and youth vocal and handbell choirs, accompanied solo singers and instrumentalists, and led congregational singing and provided music for all worship services.
Between 1998 and 2022 Mr. Azzati was on the music faculty at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. He was the recipient of the 2005 T. Edgar Shields Prize for "excellence in studio teaching, contributions to music scholarship and participation in professional musical activities, and a quality relationship to music students." During his 25-year tenure at Moravian College and as an Artist-Lecturer in Voice and Conducting, he taught applied voice, voice-related courses and conducting. For 14 seasons he was also the director of the Moravian College Women's Chorus.
Mr. Azzati holds a Bachelor’s Degree in music with a specialization in choral conducting from Juan José Castro State Conservatory of Music, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Master's Degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, Princeton, NJ.
He is the co-founder, 2-term past president and current member of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Mr. Azzati resides in Bethlehem with his wife Carole Burkhardt, also a singer and retired music educator. They have three children, Mica, Lukas and Pablo and a short-haired German pointer/brown Lab mix, Hershey.
DEANNA BREIWICK
In the 24/25 season, American soprano Deanna Breiwick will sing Lisette in La Rondine at Opéra de Monte Carlo, Adele in Die Fledermaus at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, join the Utah Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, Allentown Symphony for Vaughan-Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem as well as present recitals with the Pacific Vocal Series in Laguna Beach, CA.
In the 23/24 season, Ms. Breiwick returned to The Dallas Opera for the world premiere of Gene Scheer and Jody Talbot’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, singing the role of Claude. In concert, she performed Lisette in La Rondine with Washington Concert Opera, Messiah with the Oregon Symphony, Vaughan-Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Venice and Owensboro Symphonies, and held a residency with the Moab Music Festival.
In the 22/23 season, Ms. Breiwick made her debut at San Francisco Opera, performing Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, conducted by Eun Sun Kim. She returned to Bayerische Staatsoper for Adele in Die Fledermaus, and made debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea, the Atlanta Opera as Cunegonde in Candide and with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Oriana in Amadigi. In concert, Ms. Breiwick performed Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Charlotte Symphony and a recital at the Laguna Art gallery in Laguna Beach, CA. Ms. Breiwick is a native of Seattle, WA.
JOHN BRANCY
Grammy Winning Baritone John Brancy‘s intense musicality and communicative power place him among the finest of baritones of his generation. Hailed by the New York Times as “a vibrant, resonant presence,” and a “Suavely warm baritone…dashing” Brancy won First Prize in the Art Song Division of the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montreal. A win that recognized him as a premiere interpreter of Art Song repertoire in our time. The New Jersey native also won First Prize in the 2018 Lotte Lenya Competition in New York, Second Prize at the 2017 Wigmore Hall Competition in London. He is also a past winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition and the Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize.
Brancy recently debuted the role of Escamillo with MasterVoices in October of 2022 at Jazz at Lincoln Center Theater directed by Sammi Cannold, debuted the world premiere of La Beaute du Monde with Opera de Montreal in the role of Franz Wolff Metternich, and returned to perform with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah). He will reprise conductor/composer Alexander Prior’s Winterreise for Baritone and Orchestra at Theatre Erfurt this February and debut the role of Jake Wallace in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst at the Cleveland Orchestra. Brancy is currently preparing to make his debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in their 75th anniversary performing The Artisan & The Collector in a new world premiere opera by Sir George Benjamin entitled Picture A Day Like This, which will also have it’s premiere next fall at the Royal Opera Covent Garden. Brancy continues to present his world renowned rendition of the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden in conjunction with the NY Rangers NHL Hockey Team.