ABOUT

  • “a fine lyric voice” – Opera magazine
  • “Hay’s confident soprano revealed plenty of colour.” – The Sunday Telegraph
  • “the brilliant Pamela Hay” – International Herald Tribune
  • “intensely affecting” – The Evening Standard
  • “the supporting cast, most especially Pamela Hay’s touchingly earnest Ellen, outshine [the two leads].” – The Independent on Sunday

Polish-American soprano Pamela Hay received her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, and her Postgraduate Certificate from the Royal College of Music, London. She won scholarships to the Aspen Music Festival and the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg and was the recipient of Peabody’s prestigious Charles M. Eaton Voice Award, the Kathleen and Wallace Hankins Award in Voice and the Azalia Thomas Prize. Pamela was also supported by an HSBC scholarship award and Pamela Litman for her work with British Youth Opera. Master classes include those of Barbara Bonney, Philip Langridge and Malcolm Martineau.

Pamela has given solo voice recitals at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Kennedy Center Washington DC and in Moscow, St Petersburg, Salzburg, Belgium and Costa Rica. Pamela sings regularly as concert soloist with orchestras across the UK, in venues such as Symphony Hall Birmingham.  In 2011 she will make her debut with both the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Halle Orchestra.

She has performed over 30 roles in opera and theatre across 2 continents, including Mimi La Bohème, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Nedda Pagliacci, Pamina The Magic Flute, Norina Don Pasquale, Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice, Title role La voix humaine, Title role The Merry Widow, Yum-Yum The Mikado, Rosmene (leading lady) Handel’s Imeneo, Anne Page The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ellen Lakmé, Bubikopf The Kaiser of Atlantis, Belinda Dido and Aeneas, Barbarina The Marriage of Figaro, and Créuse in the British premiere of Milhaud’s Médée.

She has appeared with Opera Holland Park, Tete a Tete Opera Festival, British Youth Opera, Cambridge Handel Opera Group, Opera Della Luna on tour at the Lowry Centre and Buxton Opera House, Iford Opera Festival, Opera UK, Wigmore Hall Education, and the Royal Opera House’s OperaGenesis programme. Most recently Pamela appeared at the Soho Theatre as leading lady Mimi in Opera Up Close’s smash sell-out production of La Bohème, winner of WhatsOnStage Award 2011 for “Best Off-West End Production”, and winner of “Best New Opera Production” 2011 Olivier Award.

Her work has also included frequent work in the theatre, performing at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (in roles specially written for her voice, including Psyche in The Golden Ass with Mark Rylance, and Mna Siubhail in Dominic Dromgoole’s King Lear), Theatre Royal Drury Lane (Amy Little Women). Most recently Pamela was cast by Jonathan Church and Theatre Royal Bath/Chichester Festival for the national tour of Tony award-winning play Master Class, playing Sharon Graham opposite Stephanie Beacham.

In radio, Pamela made her debut as guest soloist on BBC Radio 2′s “Friday Night is Music Night,” the world’s longest-running live music programme, alongside Julian Lloyd-Webber and the BBC Concert Orchestra in 2010.  She has been asked back to appear again on 13 May 2011.  She has appeared live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and the Voice of America radio network, and has also worked in television and film, including Murphy’s Law (BBC), Miss Marple (ITV), Death of a Princess (Channel 4), and a new film released in 2009, Killing Girls.

Forthcoming engagements include her debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow’s City Halls, and then her debut with the Halle Orchestra to appear as their soloist in the closing concert of their 2010-2011 season at the Bridgewater Hall.  Pamela has been invited back by Opera Up Close to sing Nedda in Pagliacci in their new venue, the King’s Head Theatre Islington.  Pamela is the voice of mobile phone network Orange in their campaign for the launch of their new HD Voice service, and has also been cast in a featured role in Guy Ritchie’s feature film Sherlock Holmes 2, starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law and due for release in December 2011.