Praised for her “rich dramatics“ (The Boston Globe), northern New Jersey native Pamela Stein has earned a reputation for bringing passion and intelligence to every performance. Ms. Stein completed her Master’s degree in 2007 at The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where, upon graduation, she was awarded The Phyllis Bryn-Julson Prize for Commitment to and Performance of 20th/21st Century Music and a Peabody Career Development Grant. Since then, she has rocketed onto the music scene, performing both contemporary music and traditional repertoire all across the globe. In recent seasons, Pamela created the role of the murderous main character in the premier of American composer Robert Butts’ opera The Tell-Tale Heart, performed in Lesley Flanigan’s new work for voices and amplifiers at the 2011 Bent Festival, and was named winner of the Lark Gallery’s Coloros of Life Music Competition. Last season, she performed the role of The Maid in Stefan Weisman’s chamber opera Fade with American Opera Projects at Galapagos Art Space in New York, and earned praise for an outstanding performance of George Crumb’s Night Music I at the IDITAROD contemporary music concert in Boston. In previous seasons, Pamela premiered the role of Julia Dehning in Anthony Gatto and Jay Scheib’s new experimental opera The Making of Americans, based on the novel of the same name by Gertrude Stein. After successful workshop performances at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the opera made its official premier at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN in December, 2008. Pamela also recently performed a successful recital of contemporary and electronic music at Yamaha Hall in NYC, where she performed works by American composer George Crumb and gave the American premier of composer Erick Flores’ work PS: for voice and live audio track. In July of 2008, Pamela was selected to be a performance fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where she premiered works by several Bang on a Can composer fellows, performed works by Terry Riley, the festival guest composer in residence, and performed in Shelter, a massive multi-media oratorio by Bang on a Can founders Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and Pulitzer Prize recipient David Lang. That same summer, Pamela was invited to participate in and perform with the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme at the Aldeburgh Music Festival in England, for a program entitled New Music, New Media. Working with David Sheppard and Ian Dearden of Sound Intermedia, as well as one of the U.K.’s most famous living composers, Jonathan Harvey, Pamela created and performed in a multimedia work based on Brazilian filmmaker Jorge Furtado’s film The Isle of Flowers, to raise awareness about issues of social inequality in developing countries.
No stranger to traditional repertoire, Pamela traveled to Italy in 2006 to sing the title role in Puccini’s opera Suor Angelica with Operafestival di Roma. More recently, Pamela was invited to be an apprentice with the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas, where she performed the role of Eve in Haydn’s oratorio The Creation under the baton of Austria’s “Ambassador of Music,” Ernest Hoetzl. Pamela’s other notable operatic performances include the role of Virtu in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Coridon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea both with The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, the role of The Violated Saint in Amy Beth Kirsten’s 2005 opera Ophelia Forever with Harbor Opera, the role of Sophie in scenes from Nicholas Maw’s 2002 opera Sophie’s Choice with Peabody Opera, and the role of Grace in the premier performance of Jenny Beck’s one-act opera Salvation Bound with Peabody Opera Theater. In July, 2007, Pamela was invited to Los Angeles, California, where she performed in the newly created improvistaory opera My Other, My Selves with Ann Baltz’s critically acclaimed intensive training program, Operaworks.
Also an avid performer of concert and chamber music, Pamela has performed in Korean composer Isang Yun’s work Memory for three voices and percussion with the Left Bank Concert Society of Washington D.C. As part of the VIM TriBeCa contemporary chamber music series in Manhattan, Pamela premiered the work Lilacs by New York composer Lauren Buchter. While at Peabody, Pamela performed in Stockhausen’s Tierkreis with the critically acclaimed Peabody Percussion Ensemble, and sang in Terry Riley’s In C with the Peabody Camarata Orchestra.
An advocate of the creation and performance of new music, Pamela has premiered works by composers Tristan Perich, Jacob Cooper, Lesley Flanigan, Daniel Felsenfeld, Jenny Beck, Eun-Jung Kim, Kevin Clark, Malina Rauschenfels, Paul Swartzel, Lauren Buchter, and many others.
Also a composer herself, Pamela has studied composition with Judah Adashi and Stefan Young. She is a 2003 recipient of The Ruth and Raymond Young Award for new music, and has had several of her compositions premiered in Princeton, New Jersey. In her ongoing effort to support and promote new music, Pamela currently serves on the board of MATA, an organization that supports and provides opportunities for young new music composers from around the world.
After graduating from the Manhattan School of Music preparatory school, Ms. Stein completed her Bachelors degree through an exchange agreement program between Princeton University and Westmisnter Choir College. At Westminster, she studied with former Metropolitan Opera soprano Sharon Sweet. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Pamela performed in Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fischer Hall, and in a program of Dvorak with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She also took part in the NYC premier performance of Rene Clausen’s Hellas: In the Name of Freedom, at Carnegie Hall. Continuing her work as a choral artist in graduate school, in the spring of 2006, she performed with the Peabody Singers and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in John Adams’ work On The Transmigration of Souls, which was written as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Pamela also spent three seasons singing in the chorus of the New Jersey State Opera, performing in their productions of Carmen, Aida, and Macbeth, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ under the direction of the late Maestro Alfredo Silipigni.
Pamela currently resides in Manhattan.
If you would like to view my C.V., which includes a complete list of my honors and awards, work experience outside of music, and language proficiencies, please contact me.