Mozart’s Requiem

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• Saturday, April 25, 2026 @ 7:30 pm · get tickets
• Sunday, April 26, 2026 @ 2:00 pm · get tickets

Diane Wittry, Conductor
Allentown Symphony Chorus | Eduardo Azzati, Chorus Master
Jalayne Mitchell, Cello
Amanda Russo Sante | Emilie Kealani | Erik Tofte | Ethan Burck, Soloists from the Curtis Institute of Music

AUTUMN MARIA REED Mental Health Suite: The Persistent Past & The Fearful Future
JOE JAXSON Cello Concerto (World Premiere)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Requiem

Join us at Miller Symphony Hall for a transformative evening of music. The program features Mozart’s Requiem, renowned for its profound emotional depth. Also on the bill is a new cello concerto by rising composer Joe Jaxson, written for cellist Jalayne Mitchell. Jaxson describes the piece as a “vehicle for Jalayne,” aiming to channel her personal journey into a performance that embodies possibility, hope, and optimism amidst life’s chaos. The concert also includes Autumn Maria Reed’s Mental Health Suite, a poignant composition that reflects on the complexities of mental health, offering a space for reflection and understanding.

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ARTIST BIOS

JALAYNE MITCHELL
Jalayne Mitchell is a cellist currently studying at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under the tutelage of Norman Fischer. She obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2022, where she was presented the Principal’s Award of Excellence for her graduating class. In addition, she was the recipient of the Beatrice Huntington Award (Glasgow) in 2021 and 2022, and was awarded the NIMAN Fellowship at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in 2022. She has performed across the US and the UK, with named ensembles such as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, the Scottish Ensemble, and the Brodsky Quartet. Jalayne is an advocate of mental health, and devotes her spare time to helping musicians find balance between mental health and classical music.

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AMANDA RUSSO STANTE
Amanda Russo Stante serves on the music faculty at Susquehanna University as Assistant Professor of Music in voice. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Amanda began her studies in higher education in her hometown at Carnegie Mellon University. After completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a minor in German, Amanda completed her Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A lyric mezzo-soprano, Amanda has been recognized for her “highly theatrical, vocally persuasive” performances (Herald Times – Bloomington, IN). Some of her most beloved operatic roles performed include the title roles in Handel’s Serse and Massenet’s Cendrillon, Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Amanda’s recent solo concert engagements include Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, Britten’s Canticle II, Corigliano’s Fern Hill, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Duruflé’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares Españolas. Amanda’s solo performance experience has taken her to The Glimmerglass Festival, Indiana University Opera Theater, Central City Opera, and The Kennedy Center. She has appeared as a soloist with the Budapest Concert Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Wooster Symphony Orchestra, and Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. Prior to her appointment at Susquehanna University, Amanda taught courses at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and served on the voice faculty at Indiana State University. She has also been on the voice faculty for the IU Jacob School of Music’s College Audition Preparation program, New England Music Camp, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Pre-College program. Amanda lives in Selinsgrove, PA with her husband and two children.

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EMILIE KEALANI
Praised by The Wall Street Journal for her “delicate” and “ideal” title role portrayal in La Calisto at The Glimmerglass Festival, Filipino American Emilie Kealani Suarez makes her Opera Philadelphia debut as Corinna in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims and has been named an Emerging Artists for their 2025/2026 season.

Seen onstage with The Santa Fe Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Curtis Opera Theatre, Emilie made a “hauntingly drawn and vocally fulfilled” international debut with Staatsoper Stuttgart in their 2023 Calixto Bieito revival of Jenůfa. With crossover credits in Candide, Into the Woods, and West Side Story, Kealani’s performances have been celebrated for displaying “a joy in singing, an empathy in her outrageous stage personality, and jaw-dropping technique.” Beyond the stage, she has made several appearances as a guest on PBS’s WHYY TV-12 programming, has been featured in the Soundbites Column of Opera News, and is the founder of the Kapwa Passion Project. An alumna of Curtis Institute of Music and The Manhattan School of Music, Emilie’s previous roles include Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cunegonde in Candide, Dalinda in Ariodante, Miss Jessel in Turn of the Screw, and she also covered Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen and Poppea in The Comet/Poppea.

Emilie is a proud Filipina from San Francisco, with deep roots that extend to Pā‘ia, Maui, bringing the spirit and influence of Hawaiian culture into her identity. Self-taught on the traditional ukulele, Emilie grew up surrounded by family who danced Hula and Tahitian. She founded the Kapwa Passion Project in 2024 by programming Kundimans (traditional Tagalog love songs) in concerts, with the hope of sharing this exquisite and emotionally rich music with wider audiences. The project strives to bring AAPI artists together, creating events ranging from multidisciplinary recitals to panel discussions with artists representing the Bengali, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Tongan communities. Kawpa is featured on PBS WHYY TV-12 in their new Concert Specials Series during May 2025 and 2026 to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Emilie received the inaugural Stephen de Maio Memorial Award, an encouragement award from The Gerda Lissner Foundation, won the Philadelphia District of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and other awards with Opera Mississippi’s John Alexander National Vocal Competition, The National Shirley Rabb Winston Competition, Schmidt Undergraduate Awards, Beach Blanket Babylon, and National YoungArts Foundation.

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ERIK TOFTE
Erik Tofteis a baritone from Owego, NY. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mannes School of Music, and SUNY Binghamton. Erik was a 2025 Apprentice Artist with the Chautauqua Opera Company, making his mainstage debut as Schaunard in La Boheme, along with covering the role of Marcello. He was also a featured soloist in “Opera and Pops” concert with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. In 2025/26 he performs with Tri-State Chorale in Scranton, PA, as the baritone soloist in John Rutter’s Mass for the Children.

In the 2024/25 season, Erik covered role of Luther/The Woodcutter for the Prototype Festival’s NYC premiere of In a Grove by Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann and performed the bass soloist role in Messiah with the Arcadia Chorale in Scranton, PA. He was also a Festival Artist with Opera Saratoga in Guys and Dolls as Calvin and Sky Masterson (cover) and performed as a Vassal with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Act III of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, conducted by Andris Nelsons.

During his time at the Curtis Institute, Erik performed as Le Mari in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias under Michelle Rofrano, as Harlekin in excerpts from Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos under Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore under Christian Capocaccia.

Erik has previously performed with Delaware Valley Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Mannes Opera, Arcadia Chorale and Binghamton University. Additional productions he has performed include La Boheme, Die Zauberflöte, The Pirates of Penzance, The Gift of The Magi, The Telephone, The Medium, and H.M.S. Pinafore.

Erik was a first-place winner of the NATS Regional Competition, a semi-finalist for the CS Music Competition, and Encouragement Award Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (Pittsburgh District).

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ETHAN BURCK
Ethan E. Burck, originally from Aurora, Illinois, holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, and Baldwin Wallace University. The 2024/25 season saw Burck return to Philadelphia and Iowa, joining for the premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s new opera, The Listeners, as a cover for both Kyle and Vince. He then traveled to Iowa to join the Des Moines Metro Opera’s OPERA Iowa tour and covered the role of Sellem in Stavinsky’s The Rake’s Progress during their summer season.

Burck graduated from Yale in 2024, during his time he performed the role of Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress and Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi,as well as the 1^st Brother in Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden. Other roles performed at Yale include the Male Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and scenes from Massenet’s Werther, Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Burck has performed with orchestras around the U.S., including the Yale Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Symphony, Syracuse Symphoria, and the Wichita Symphony. Notably, he also stepped in as the Shepherd in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex with Opera Philadelphia in concert with only several hours’ notice.

Ethan was a 2021 Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera and a 2025 Apprentice Artist at the Des Moines Metro Opera. He is managed by Piper Artists Management.

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