BACH - Key Persons
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- Partner, King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul LLC / Bethlehem, PA
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- Administrative Assistant
- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
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- Retired President / Rexroth Corporation
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
Andrea Berntsen started playing piano at age of three and became a professional accompanist at the age of thirteen. She earned a BM in Piano Performance from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and an MM in Piano and Organ Performance from the Yale University School of Music, New Haven, Connecticut. Ms. Berntsen has been an active church organist and choir director for close to fifty years and currently resides in Allentown, PA where she continues working as a church musician in addition to freelancing as a keyboard accompanist.
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- Retired Senior Manager at the World Bank
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Bel Canto Administrative Manager
- Bel Canto Choir Manager and Marketing and Development Assistant
- Bel Canto Founder & Artistic Director
- Support
Founded in 1993 and comprised of auditioned treble singers from five counties in southeastern Pennsylvania, The Bel Canto Youth Chorus of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem has developed an international reputation for performing diversified choral repertoire at the highest standard of musical excellence and style.
Bel Canto has close to 800 titles in our library housed in Easton, PA primarily treble music of a wide variety of styles, genres, and difficulty levels. We typically hold these Open Houses several times during the year when Bel Canto conductors are present to be resources. Any area teacher can stop in to peruse scores, get recommendations for music, and read through pieces in which they are interested. Interested in a Professional Development day for your district? Please contact us to arrange a time!
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Managers -
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- Owner of Cardstock Warehouse Paper Co., Inc
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- President, Thiel Strategic / Allentown, PA
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- ARTISTIC STAFF Member
- Orchestra Personnel Manager
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Development Officer
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- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Artistic Director & Conductor
Dr. Jackson remains an active professional choral singer and soloist, with focuses in Baroque, Renaissance, and Modern eras. As a core member of the Boston-based chamber choir, Skylark, he has appeared on three GRAMMY nominated albums (Best Choral Performance), and also serves as the ensemble's Director of Education. In that position, he helped design free materials for music educators across the country to use for virtual music-making. He has performed with GRAMMY Award-Winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Artefact Ensemble, Les Canards Chantants, and Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran, in New York City.
Dr. Jackson received his Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma State University, studying conducting under Dr. Dirk Garner (Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival). He received his Master of Music in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College, and was the graduate assistant conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir under Dr. Joe Miller and Dr. Amanda Quist, as well as studying with Dr. Andrew Megill (Carmel Bach, Illinois Bach Academy). He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas, studying with Dr. Gerry McCoy and Dr. Richard Sparks. His areas of research include the programming and performance of Baroque and Renaissance Music for choirs of all ages and levels of experience, as well as the choral music of Benjamin Britten.
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Business Manager
- Finance
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Bel Canto Administrative Manager
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- President Emeritus / Retired President & CEO
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- Retired Chief Operating Officer
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Artistic Director
- Director
- Founder
- Bel Canto Founder & Artistic Director
- Founder and Artistic Director of Bel Canto Youth Chorus
Dr. Joy Hirokawa is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Bel Canto Youth Chorus. She earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Music Education from Boston University, a Masters degree in Choral Conducting from Temple University, and a Bachelors degree with honors in Music Education, also from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She teaches a course annually at Villanova University's Summer Music Program in working with the child's voice. Dr. Hirokawa is a frequent guest conductor and clinician, presenting regularly at ACDA, NAfME and PMEA conferences and conducting numerous honors choirs, including the Connecticut All-State Elementary Honors Choir, the Middle School Treble Alabama All-State Chorus, the ACDA-PA All-State Middle School Honors Choir, and the ACDA-PA All-State Women's Honor. Under her direction, The Bel Canto Youth Chorus has performed locally, nationally and internationally to great acclaim, and has appeared at ACDA, NAfME, and PMEA conferences. International tours have taken the choir to Italy, Ireland, England, and in the summer of 2013, Central Europe. Dr. Hirokawa's published arrangements include her jazz arrangement of "My Favorite Things" and the Andalusian song "Lamma Badaa Yatathanna," which have appeared on numerous festival programs. She is the current ACDA Eastern Division Repertoire and Standards Chair for Children and Youth Choirs and the Southeast Region Chair for ACDA-PA. Dr. Hirokawa taught in the public schools for 20 years and is now an adjunct professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Marketing Manager
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- Artistic Director and Conductor of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem
Mr. Black was an executive at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., where he held various positions in commercial development, strategic planning, and mergers and acquisition during his 30-year career. Prior to that he worked in research and development and engineering for DuPont de Nemours and Co. and the Uniroyal Chemical Company. He retired in 2011. He holds degrees in Chemical Engineering, Spanish, and Business from Bucknell University and the University of Delaware. In retirement, Mr. Black has been active in the field of mergers and alliances among non-profit organizations, has lent his skills managing programs for the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley and serving on the Board of Habitat for Humanity, and has helped Trout Unlimited form a fly-fishing club at Lehigh University. He has also begun the study of piano and music composition and has had original compositions performed in recital at the Community Music School. He and his wife Allison, who is an avid equestrian, enjoy travel and attending live performances of music in all genres.
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- Retired Vice President / City Center Investment Corp.
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- Professor of History Emeritus of Moravian College
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- President Emeritus / Community Leader / Bethlehem, PA
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Choir Manager
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- Chairman and Representative to the Bach Choir of Bethlehem Board of Directors
- Chief Marketing and Operations Officer
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- Community Leader / the Century Fund
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- President Emeritus / Retired Sr. VP - Administration
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Archivist
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- Professor of Music and Composer in Residence
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- Bel Canto Choir Manager and Marketing and Development Assistant
- Choir Manager of Bel Canto Youth Chorus
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- Executive Director
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Executive Director of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem
LEELA BREITHAUPT is Executive Director of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. A dynamic nonprofit arts administrator, Leela combines her experience as internationally successful performer with skills in executive leadership. As President and CEO of IndyBaroque Music until 2021, Ms. Breithaupt built strong collaborative relationships with several choirs to present the music of J.S. Bach, including The Bach Institute at Valparaiso University, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Beecher Singers of Second Presbyterian Church, and Spire Ensemble that included performances of Bach's Mass in B Minor, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Weinachtsoratorium. She managed two Indianapolis International Baroque Competitions, secured funding and a Naxos sponsor partnership, and managed a global team of industry leaders on 3 continents as Executive Producer for 6 full-length Naxos CD recordings, 4 for Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra and 2 with Les Ordinaires Baroque Ensemble, which she founded in 2014.
As a flute soloist and guest artist on modern and traverso (baroque flute), she has performed nationally and internationally at Carnegie Hall, in Europe, including St. László Festival (Hungary), La Côte Flûte Festival (Switzerland), and Nymphenburg Palace (Munich), and in Hong Kong and South Korea. She was the main substitute with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and flutist with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra.
Ms. Breithaupt has published in Flute Talk Magazine in addition to teaching masterclasses in the US and Germany. Deeply immersed in the music of Bach and the German culture, she is multi-lingual and a near-native German speaker who studied both in the US and in Germany and has lived and worked in Germany regularly for the past 25 years. She is well connected with musicians and arts administrators in Europe.
Ms. Breithaupt earned her Bachelor of Music and her Master of Music degrees with a Major in Flute Performance from Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and her Artist Diploma (Konzertexamen) with Summa cum laude (mit Auszeichnung) from the Berlin University of The Arts (UDK) where she studied under Karlheinz Zoeller. She holds an MBA (2020) from the 2021's top-rated MBA program in the U.S., The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, where she also taught Leadership and Organizational Behavior Management.
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- Retired School Principal / Bangor, PA
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- Member of the Board of Managers -
- Retired / Global Corporate Communications Strategist
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- ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Member
- Production Manager
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- ARTISTIC STAFF Member
- Assistant Conductor & Accompanist
- Choir History and Archives
The roots of The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, the oldest Bach Choir in America, go back to Colonial times and to the Moravians who settled Bethlehem in 1712. The Choir was founded in 1898 by its first conductor John Frederick Wolle, an organist at Central Moravian Church, and gave the first complete performances in America of the Mass in B Minor (1900) and Christmas Oratorio (1901). Since its founding in 1898, The Choir has been attracting thousands of visitors to the annual Bethlehem Bach Festival, now held on the campus of Lehigh University and in and around the historic Bethlehem neighborhood. Greg Funfgeld, the sixth conductor of The Choir, has been artistic director and conductor since 1983 and is now in his 39th and final season with The Choir. He has expanded the programs of The Bach Choir beyond the annual Bach Festivals to become a year-round season of 31 concerts and educational programs with an audience of more than 20,000.