KEYBOARDS + BACKING VOCALS – EMMY AWARD WINNER
Emmy Award winner Don Breithaupt grew up surrounded by music: jazz from his piano-playing father; classical from his soprano mother; rock, funk and soul from the world around him. He took up piano early, and in his twenties attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship with a major in Composition and Arranging. Returning to Toronto, he became an in-demand sideman, over the years accompanying Aretha Franklin, Sam Moore, The Drifters, Sass Jordan, Kim Mitchell, Rik Emmett, Chuck Berry, Peter Noone, Marc Jordan, Walter Zwol and many more.
In addition to an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song, Don’s career in television has yielded three SOCAN Awards and a Gemini Award nomination for Best Original Score. He was twice shortlisted for the Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Songwriting, and is a ten-time nominee at the Smooth Jazz Awards. In 2020, his Monkey House project garnered a Juno Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and he has twice won the jazz category of the USA Songwriting Competition.
Don has contributed original songs to many major-label releases, most recently Chicago’s #1 Christmas album and The Manhattan Transfer’s acclaimed comeback album, The Junction. His songs have been recorded and/or performed by Grammy, Tony and Juno honorees like James Naughton, Kelli O’Hara, Carolyn Leonhart, Catherine Russell, LaChanze, Brent Carver, Kate McGarry, Sarah Slean, Dione Taylor, Wendy Lands and Alfie Zappacosta.