Amy Pfrimmer

Amy Pfrimmer is a Professor of Music at Tulane University, New Orleans, where she has been a Newcomb Department of Music faculty member since 2007. A professional singer, Pfrimmer is Tulane University’s Lillian Gerson Watsky Professor in Voice, Director of Tulane Opera, Founding Director of the Tulane Vocal Arts Festival and Symposium, Tulane’s Voice Area Coordinator, and Artist Faculty at the FIO-Italia Summer Festival in Urbania, Italy.

Pfrimmer’s artistic projects have included opera, oratorio, recital, concert, music directing, and stage directing with her musical collaborations taking her across the US, France, Italy, England, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Canada. Notable engagements as a soloist include appearances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Baltimore Choral Arts, Montréal Opera, Atlanta Symphony, New Orleans Opera, Bulgarian State Opera Stara Zagora, Illinois Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Mississippi Opera, and Virginia Symphony. Significantly, she soloed across the US with conductor Keith Brion’s New Sousa Band and collaborated frequently with the late pianist/composer Dave Brubeck in his Mass, To Hope! A Celebration, and La Fiesta de la Posada.

Her diverse repertoire ranges from concert works including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and the sacred works of Dave Brubeck, to operatic repertoire spanning Pergolesi’s Lo frate ‘nnammorato and Puccini’s La bohème to such contemporary American works as Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Schnyder’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird. A specialist in 19th and 20th Century French mélodie, Pfrimmer's discography includes four critically acclaimed recordings, which can be found on the MSR Classics and Centaur Records labels: Souvenance: Mélodies and Organ Works of César Franck, Eternal Life: Sacred Songs and Spirituals, The Lost Romantic: Songs of Louise Reichardt, and Songs of Louis Vierne.

Pfrimmer’s skills in singing, directing, and conducting have consistently been recognized by The American Prize. She is an American Prize Chicago Oratorio Award winner, a past recipient of Tulane University's Crest Award for Outstanding Faculty, winner of a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, recipient of a Metropolitan Opera Education Fund grant, winner of a NATS Foundation Emerging Leaders Award, and Florida Grand Opera’s Gilbert Artist of the Year. She has presented her research findings and performances for the National Opera Association (NOA), International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT), Korea NATS, International Music by Women Conference (IAWM), National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), and University of Glasgow’s International Spheres of Singing conference.

In New Orleans, Pfrimmer is a principal cantor at St. Louis Cathedral-Basilica, where she was 2023-2024 liaison to the Paris Conservatoire and supervisor for the Conservatoire’s St. Louis Cathedral Young Artist-Organist in Residence. She is an advisory board member for the Louisiana Music & Heritage Experience and the New Orleans Opera Association, a company with which she has enjoyed a 30+ year artistic relationship.

Pfrimmer is committed to the education and mentorship of young emerging artists, sharing the depth of her experience gained from a wide range of cross-cultural artistic, musical, and stage collaborations. She makes frequent guest artist appearances and is sought after for her high energy, interactive university, and young artist program masterclasses. She has been invited for artist residencies, adjudications, lecture-recitals, and masterclasses on university campuses, such as the University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida State University, University of Arizona, Michigan State University, University of New Mexico, University of Illinois, Montclair State University, Universidade Estadual de Campinas - Instituto des Artes (Brazil), Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (Brazil), Oakland University (Michigan), University of Northern Iowa, Arkansas State University, and Missouri State University, among others. She has been an invited guest artist clinician or adjudicator at the Brevard Music Center (North Carolina), National CS Music Convention, Shreveport Opera, Shoreline Arts Alliance (Connecticut), Vocal Artistry Art Song Festival (New Mexico), and Lawrence Opera Theatre (Kansas).

Pfrimmer is a Louisiana native and is married to businessman, attorney, and District 19 Louisiana State Senator Greg Miller.