CBA Ode to Joy

BEETHOVEN VOCAL SOLOISTS

The four soloists for these performances of the Beethoven “Ode to Joy” are all winners of The American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award. The American Prize National Nonprofit Competitions in the Performing Arts is the nation’s most comprehensive series of annual contests in the arts. Founded by David Katz in 2010 and administered by Hat City Music Theater, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, The American Prize has attracted artists from all fifty states and awarded more than $75,000 in prizes in all categories since its inception. www.theamericanprize.org.

Amy Pfrimmer, soprano Amy Pfrimmer is Assistant Professor of Music and the Lillian Gerson Watsky Professor in Voice at Tulane University where she has been voice area coordinator and director of the vocal music concert series since 2007. Her repertoire and creative work encompasses a wide range of music, with particular focus on Romantic and 20th Century opera, oratorio, concert literature, and song. With MSR Classics label, Pfrimmer has released two recordings: Souvenance: Mélodies and Organ Works of César Franck and Eternal Life: Sacred Songs and Spirituals.

Specific projects in 2014-2018 have included Schönberg’s expressionist mono-drama Pierrot Lunaire (Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra), the tragic title characters in Verdi’s La Traviata and Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly (State Opera Stara Zagora Bulgaria), and Mozart’s heroine Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Lawrence Opera Theatre Kansas). With New Orleans Opera she appeared as Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld as Juno, Kitty Hart in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and the title character in Friedl. She also gave concerts featuring the music of César Franck, St. Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, Händel’s Messiah, and sang Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors. National/international recitals include Absolutely American!, American Summer Dream, and From New Orleans to Bulgaria featuring the works of American composers Amy Beach, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Carlisle Floyd, Moses Hogan, Rudolf Friml, Cole Porter, and Richard Hundley and Bulgarian composer Parashkev Hadjiev. With pianist Dreux Montegut, Pfrimmer created and performed a solo program Cabaret Soirée! featuring the American songbook composers Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Kurt Weill. She has been a regular soloist with the Marine Corps Band-New Orleans, and New Orleans Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, Pfrimmer has appeared in several French concert series: Vendredi Soirées at St. Pierre le Jeune and Les Estivales de St. Guillaume in Strasbourg, L’Abbaye de Royaumont, as well as The American Cathedral and St. Eustache in Paris. In 2018, she revived Tulane’s Opera Workshop, directing and musically preparing students for their roles in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief. She has sustained interests in sacred and liturgical music, the music and style of J.S. Bach, G.F. Händel, Giacomo Puccini, César Franck, Cécile Chaminade and Luise Reichardt, and a particular affinity for the French mélodie.

16 ODE TO JOY