Biography

Joseph Breslau is a baritone equally passionate about opera, new music, and German Lieder performance. They received a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, along with a German Minor from Case Western Reserve University. His passion for collaboration led him to the programming of his senior recital with exclusively duo and ensemble works, including a self-arranged version of Bizet’s famous Pearl Fishers duet for an ensemble of 9 instruments as well as an original composition for voice, piano, viola, and clarinet. Joseph has sung the roles of Papageno from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Aeneas from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Duncan from Ernest Bloch's Macbeth, Sid from Britten's Albert Herring, and Jupiter from Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers. Joseph performed as a soloist with the Case Western Reserve University Baroque Ensemble as well as the Bard Conservatory Baroque Ensemble in performances of music by Purcell, A. Gabrieli, L. de Sayve, and J. S. Bach.

Joseph has premiered a multitude of new pieces by composers from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Bard College, including Arseny Gusev’s 5 Sunset Songs, Yoav Sadeh’s Loneliness: A monodrama for soloist and ensemble, Wyland Stephenson’s July 28th, 1533, and Noah Hertzman’s song Birches. Joseph has a passion for concert work, and was recently named a winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Artist Competition for his own story-form recital program. They were also named a winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Young Artist Competition in 2022. In the same year, Joseph won the NATS Ohio Senior Undergraduate Division, and looks forward to a continued competition career.