Background
MM, Curtis Institute of Music
Read about Pamela Hinchman's teaching philosophy on her personal web site.
Soprano. Pamela Hinchman is Associate Professor of Voice at Northwestern University, where she has taught since 2004. She has had a prolific singing career appearing in major venues around the world from Italy, France, England, Israel, Mexico, Austria, Africa, the United States, Egypt, and Hong Kong, to name a few.
From her graduate studies at Curtis, she was hand-picked by Gian-Carlo Menotti to create the title role in his world premiere of The Bride from Pluto at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. After a national tour, he then took her to Spoleto, Italy, where she was featured in a multimedia event for RAI television.
She has appeared in leading roles in various opera companies, including San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Palm Beach, Kentucky, Florida Grand, Boston Opera, Nashville Opera, Cleveland Opera, New Orleans, Chautauqua, Wolf Trap Opera, Austin Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Grand Rapids, singing such repertoire as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Norina in Don Pasquale, Pamina and Queen of the Night in Magic Flute, Adina in L‘elisir d’amore, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Cunegonde in Candide, Marzellina in Fidelio, Nanetta in Falstaff, Euridice in Offenbach’s Orfee aux Enfers, Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Musetta in La boheme, Oscar in Ballo in maschera, Josephine in HMS Pinafore, Yum Yum in The Mikado, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, to name a few.
Professor Hinchman has performed with orchestras around the world, including Washington’s National Symphony at both the Kennedy Center and at Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic, Harrisburg Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, National Chorale of Avery Fisher, Indianapolis Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Richmond Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony in Israel, Cairo Symphony in Egypt, Pacific Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and many others. She has appeared at Wolf Trap, OK Mozart, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, and Caramoor Festivals. She has sung a wide variety of concert repertoire such as Mozart’s Exultate, jubilate, Requiem, C-Mass, and Coronation Mass; Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915; Orff’s Carmina burana; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Handel’s Messiah (including one performance that was broadcast on PBS for 10 seasons); Gliere’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano; Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne; Mahler’s Symphony #4; Haydn’s Creation; Bach's Wedding Cantata and B-Mass; and Karl Jenkin’s Mass for Peace at Carnegie Hall.
Basing her career—and consequently her teaching—on versatility, Professor Hinchman's past students can be seen currently performing on Broadway and in national touring companies. Having performed countless performances of music by Johann Strauss, Lehar, Gilbert and Sullivan, Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kern, Lerner and Loewe, and Gershwin, Ms. Hinchman is equally at home in crossover work. In the genres of Musical Theater and Jazz, she has appeared in Israel, Egypt, Wolf Trap, Caramoor Festival, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chautauqua, Italy, France, England, and Thailand. By specifically utilizing the Estill Vocal technique, she specializes in cross vocal training.
As a master class technician and recitalist, she has appeared at Indiana University; University of Michigan; Curtis Institute of Music; Cincinnati Conservatory of Music; Westminster Choir College; Chautauqua Opera; American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS); University of Illinois; Cleveland Institute of Music.
International recital and master class technician credits include The University of Pretoria in South Africa; Riga Academy in Latvia; Vilnius Academy in Lithuania; the Georges V Recital Series at the American Cathedral in Paris; The Rostov State Theatre in Russia; Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagaland, India; Bangkok and Chang Mai, Thailand; Djibouti, Africa; State Opera House in Ulan Baatar, Mongolia; Yangoon, Myanmar; Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martin in Tenerfie, Spain; Antiqua, Guatemala; Graz and Vienna, Austria; and Lucca, Italy. Professor Hinchman is a regular faculty member at La musica lirica each summer in Novefeltria, Italy.
Students of Professor Hinchman have sung at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Volksoper, York Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Young Artist Programs at Florentine Opera, Glimmerglass, Wolf Trap, Tulsa Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Aspen, Central City, Utah Festival Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and Sarasota Opera; and on Broadway at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and national touring companies of Book of Mormon and Motown, to name a few. Her students have been recipients of prestigious awards from the Neue Stimmen International Competition, Palm Beach Opera, Nicholas Loren International Competition, Classical Singers National Competition, Chicago Musicians’ Club of Women (Lynn Harvey Cooper Award), the Bel Canto Opera Foundation Competition (Grand Prize), National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards, International Handel Aria Competition, and the International Meistersinger Competition. Many students have been finalists in the district and regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
A native of Pennsylvania, Professor Hinchman received her master's degree in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music. She received an Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music for “significant professional achievement in performance.” As a Fulbright recipient, she worked in Asia to create a Western classical music curriculum for conservatories in Mongolia. Passionate about “giving back” to communities, she has received multiple research grants for cross-cultural music exchanges, a program she calls “Songs without Borders.” Through this program she has collaborated with musicians in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagaland, India; Bangkok and Chang Mai, Thailand; Djibouti, Africa; Ulan Baatar, Mongolia; Yangoon, Myanmar; Tenerife, Spain; and Antiqua, Guatemala to name a few. She is currently creating a database of living African composers to introduce their compositions to universities in the United States. In 2024, she will travel to South Africa to conduct master classes and to sing a recital of music composed entirely of living South African composers. In summary, for Ms. Hinchman, collaborative music is an international language that transcends global conflict and poverty and is a philosophy by which she lives.
“Peace is not about the absence of war but the presence of love and soprano singer [Pamela Hinchman] has a love connection with music that has the capacity to connect and heal the bonds of our humanity.” - Ulaan Baatar Times, 2009
For more information, visit her personal web site.