Biography
About Amy Pfrimmer

Opera, Concert, Oratorio, Recital and Master Classes

"There can never be a doubt that Amy Pfrimmer feels what she is singing. The American soprano brings a deep well of fervour to the repertoire on ‘Eternal Life’, her recording with pianist Dreux Montegut...The music in Eternal Life ascends as the text moves to its hopeful culmination and Pfrimmer invests phrases with increasing intensity and vibrancy. Here, as elsewhere, she makes sure every word is clear, whatever the range or language, and her bright voice…sends the messages urgently into space. 

Pfrimmer is at her expressive, clarion best in dramatic episodes, such as ‘Hear ye, Israel!’ (from Mendelssohn’s Elijah) and Gounod’s O Divine Redeemer. In a series of Spirituals arranged by Moses Hogan and Hall Johnson, she savours the moments of celebratory zeal and religious ecstasy in close communion with pianist Montegut. These songs require a fine balance between urgent storytelling and rhapsodic declamation. Pfrimmer delivers them with passion, lucidity and respect."

Gramophone by Donald Rosenberg

​

Known for her dramatic and vocal versatility, soprano Amy Pfrimmer has sung across the US, Europe, and Canada and is a 2019 Winner of the American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award. Notable engagements include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Baltimore Choral Arts, Montréal Opera, New Orleans Opera, Bulgarian State Opera Stara Zagora, Illinois Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Mississippi Opera, Atlanta Symphony, and Virginia Symphony. Favorite operatic roles include The Merry Widow, Violetta, Mimi and Musetta, Cio-Cio San, Nedda, Amahl’s Mother, and Rosalinda. Her concert repertoire ranges from Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, to Poulenc’s Gloria, Händel’s Messiah to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Notably, she collaborated frequently with the late pianist/composer Dave Brubeck in his Mass, To Hope! A Celebration, and La Fiesta de la Posada and soloed across the US with conductor Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band. 

​

With the MSR Classics label, Pfrimmer has released three recordings - Souvenance: Mélodies and Organ Works of César Franck with pianist/organist Thomas Kientz, Eternal Life: Sacred Songs and Spirituals with pianist Dreux Montegut and The Lost Romantic: Songs of Louise Reichardt, also with Montegut. In May 2022, Pfrimmer and collaborative partners Peter Collins and Thomas Ospital released Songs of Louis Vierne with Centaur Records.

​

Pfrimmer is an active recitalist presenting programs nationally and internationally, including Songs from the War Years: Music of World War I, Souvenance: Music of César Franck, Absolutely American, American Summer Dream, and Cabaret Soirée!, featuring American songbook composers. Pfrimmer has appeared in recital in the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, and Ruse, and soon Varna as well as in several French concert series: Vendredi Soirs at St. Pierre le Jeune and Les Estivales de St. Guillaume in Strasbourg, L’Abbaye de Royaumont, Cathédrale de Fréjus, Festival d’orgue de Colmar, as well as The American Cathedral and St. Eustache in Paris.

Awards for the soprano include the 2018 Tulane University Undergraduate Student Government’s John Stibbs Crest Award for Outstanding Faculty Member, a Louisiana Division of the Arts fellowship, a Metropolitan Opera Education Fund study grant, NATS Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Award, and Florida Grand Opera’s Gilbert Artist of the Year. Early in her career, Amy was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions national finalist. 

​

An alumna of the distinguished young artist programs of the Florida Grand Opera, Virginia Opera and Chautauqua Opera, Pfrimmer received her Master of Music degree from Loyola University of New Orleans, and her Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Her teachers have included Martina Arroyo, Mary Henderson Buckley, Philip Frohnmayer, Sandra Kungle, Arthur Levy, and Patricia O’Neill.

​

In 2012, Tulane University appointed Pfrimmer as its Lillian Gerson Watsky Professor in voice. A dedicated teacher, she has served as Tulane’s voice area coordinator and concert vocal series director since 2007 and as director of Tulane Opera beginning in 2018. In 2023, Pfrimmer joined the Artist Faculty of the FIO-Italia Summer Festival in Urbania, Italy. She is frequently sought after for her high energy, interactive university and young artist program master classes, and as a well-respected contest adjudicator. She has presented her research for National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the National Opera Association (NOA), the University of Glasgow’s Spheres of Singing, the ICVT/International Congress of Voice Teachers, and IAWM/International Alliance for Women in Music, among others. 

​

Pfrimmer makes frequent guest artist appearances and has conducted master classes at the Brevard Music Center, National CS Music Convention, Southern Region NATS Conference, Lawrence Opera Theatre where she was 2014 Artist in Residence/Donna Anna, and on university campuses, such as University of Colorado at Boulder, University of New Mexico, Oakland University in Michigan, University of Northern Iowa, Louisiana College, University of North Alabama, Mississippi College and completed residencies at the Brevard Music Center’s Janiec Opera, as well as Arkansas State University, Missouri State University, NOCCA and Mississippi School of the Arts. She was previously on the voice faculties of The University of West Florida and Loyola University of New Orleans. Amy is also a principal cantor at New Orleans' St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica.