Our Allentown Bach at Noon series continues at St. John’s Lutheran Church on Tuesday, July 14th. Gather with us for this free, inspiring concert series, a musical gift to our community.

July’s Bach at Noon features music important to both American and our local Moravian histories. Members of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, will join with the local Moravian ensemble Unitas to perform J.F. Peter’s jubilant Freudenpsalm, composed in 1783 to celebrate the end of the Revolutionary War. Peter lived, worked, and made music right here in the Lehigh Valley in 1776, so you will hear a snapshot of the music heard during the year of our nation’s birth!

The July Bach at Noon is named in honor and loving memory of Alice Anne Miller. The concert is made possible in part by a generous legacy gift from the Century Fund and from Alice’s sister, Joan Miller Moran.

SOLOISTS

SOPHIA SANTIAGO, soprano, has performed as a soloist across the New York metropolitan area. She studied with Faith Esham at Westminster Choir College; performing Mozart opera roles Pamina from die Zauberflöte and Susanna from Le nozze di Figaro. Her Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance was completed at Manhattan School of Music with Shirley Close where she specialized in early and contemporary music. Santiago won first place at the Spazio e Musica competition in 2022 and performed a concert series across Italy with early music ensemble I Musicalli Affetti. She was a New York District winner in the Laffont competition of 2022 and studied at the 2023 American Bach Soloist Academy. In 2024, she sang in the Hugo Wolf Akademie Liedduo Competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Santiago was the soprano soloist in Caldara’s Missa dolorosa with the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia with which she also performed as Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in 2025. Recent engagements in 2026 include her solo debut with Opera Philadelphia as a Godmother in the world premiere of Sleeper’s Awake by Gregory Spears. Other endeavors this year include a solo appearance with VAE in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri and performing Bach’s Jauchzet in allen landenwith the West Jersey Chamber Ensemble.

Soprano OLIVIA PRENDERGAST, with her remarkable range and emotional depth, has been praised for her “poised and silvery-voiced tone” (Opera Today). In 2025–2026, Prendergast debuted with Opera Philadelphia singing Delia in Il Viaggio a Reims, and covered the lead, Thorn Rose, in the premiere of Gregory Spears’ Sleepers Awake. Prendergast was a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where she covered Cleopatra in Julius Caesar and appeared on the main stage as Marie de’Medici in Galileo Galilei. She then joined the Glimmerglass Festival later that summer to cover the title role in La Calisto. During two seasons with the Merola Opera Program, she was hailed as “the ideal naïf” (San Francisco Classical Voice) – Lucia – in The Rape of Lucretia, and as First Spirit in Die Zauberflöte. Other lead and featured operatic roles include Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar, Romilda in Xerxes, and Lisa in Dog Days, among others. Equally expressive in concert work, she has appeared as soprano soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah and with regional symphonies as soloist in Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem, and Telemann’s Die Dönner-Ode, among others. She also sings with The Crossing, where she has appeared as a soloist on several albums and premieres. Prendergast has received substantial recognition on the competition circuit, most notably including second prize in the Midwest Region of the Laffont Competition (2023).

ROBIN BIER, alto   Praised for her “inimitable, resonant contralto” (Phindie), “particularly moving singing” (Cleveland Classical), and “mysterious, dark hue and sauntering presence” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Robin Bier enjoys a varied career of solo and ensemble singing.  She has appeared as a soloist with the Washington Bach Consort, American Bach Soloists, Cantata Collective, Staunton Music Festival, Choral Arts Baroque Soloists, and recently created the role of Godmother in the new opera Sleepers Awake by Gregory Spears with Opera Philadelphia. As a professional chorister, Bier has worked with many of the top ensembles in the U.S. and U.K. and is co-founder of solo-voice early music ensemble Les Canards Chantants, with whom she has garnered praise for ‘elegant vocalism’ (Philadelphia Inquirer), ‘finely tuned vocals, robust singing, emotional flexibility, and sense of adventure’ (Broad Street Review), and ‘brilliant and moving programming’ (Early Music America). Originally from Alaska, Bier holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, and the University of York in England. She is now based in Philadelphia, where she teaches studio voice and leads the medieval and renaissance vocal ensemble Critical Mass at Swarthmore College, coaches the trebles at Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and grapples with the joyful daily challenge of keeping up with husband Graham and sons Roland and Juniper.

SAM DENLER, tenor, is based in New Haven, Connecticut, who performs as a soloist and choral singer around the world. He sings in the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is the tenor soloist for Amor Artis, performs annually with early music ensemble Res Facta, and filmed a scene with Bradley Cooper for Netflix’s Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Denler has been featured in numerous music festivals, most recently with the Bachakademie in Stuttgart, Germany, and in his sixth fellowship with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. He is also a skilled professional audio/video engineer for many ensembles across the U.S. Denler has just graduated with his Master’s in Voice: Early Music, Oratorio + Chamber Ensemble in the prestigious Voxtet ensemble from Yale University in May. Denler’s performances this year included the title role in Handel’s Jephtha, for which Parterre Box said “His bright tenor dealt handily with the difficult coloratura, spinning out a lovely, comforting ‘Waft her angels.’” He also completed a tour of Italy this summer with Haydn’s Creation, directed by Grete Pedersen. The tour culminated in Rome with a concert of madrigals with Simon Carrington. He earned his Bachelor’s in Music Education at Westminster Choir College in 2019.

GRAHAM BIER, bass-baritone, is based in the Philadelphia area, where he stays busy as Director of Music at Bryn Athyn Cathedral, Music Director of the Reading Choral Society, lecturer at Bryn Athyn College, Co-Director of the solo-voice ensemble Les Canards Chantants, and Director of the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir. He is an avid ensemble singer, including appearances with I Fagiolini, Stile Antico, and The Crossing, and also performs as a soloist, most recently in the Coffee Cantata with the Philadelphia Bach Collective, odes by Purcell and Mare, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Berks Sinfonietta. Bier can be heard (and briefly glimpsed) with the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir in the Netflix film Maestro; other recordings include Stile Antico’s The Phoenix Rising (Harmonia Mundi) and Stef Conner’s Riddle Songs (Delphian). Since the pandemic he has served as a chorusmaster with the award-winning WorldChoir. Bier holds a BA in music from Oberlin College, and an MA in Vocal Studies and PhD in Musicology both from the University of York (UK).

UNITAS CHORALE serves as the Northern Province performing arm of the Moravian Music Foundation. This choral ensemble was formed in 1996 with the support of the Foundation to provide an opportunity both for the performance of selections from the archival collections and newly written Moravian music in the Lehigh Valley area and beyond. The chorale is a non-auditioned community ensemble that reflects the Moravian musical culture of high-quality musicianship and talents provided by every member of the community.

KYLE JOHNSTON, Unitas Chorale Interim Director, serves as the Associate Director of the Moravian Music Foundation’s Bethlehem Office and is currently serving in the role of Interim Director for the Unitas Chorale. Johnston is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who graduated with a BA in Music Education from Campbell University and finished graduate work on a MLIS in Archival & Local Studies from Pennsylvania Western University in May. With the Moravian Music Foundation, Johnston leads community classes, lectures, and events, as well as manages the MMF’s archival collection held at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem. He has interests in history, folklore, and ethnomusicology, and these topics can often be found reflected in his professional and personal projects.