Anna Maria Pammer

Artist in Residence 2007-08 and 2008-09

Soprano Anna Maria Pammer graduated from Linz’s High School for Music and went on to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna where she studied voice, violoncello, lied and oratorio as well as musical-dramatic performance. She then joined Opernhaus Zürich’s International Opera Studio.
Her first great success came for her work in Udo Zimmermann’s “Der Schuhu und die fliegende Prinzessin” under the direction of the composer himself at the 1995 Salzburger Festspiele and at Opernhaus Leipzig.

Since then, she has appeared at Vienna’s Volksoper, the Opéra de Paris, the Kammeroper in Vienna and at theaters in Cologne, Ulm, Darmstadt, St. Gallen and Klagenfurt.

She collaborates regularly with Vienna’s Neue Oper and with NetzZeit.

In concert, she has sung together with a long list of prominent orchestras including the Wiener Symphoniker, the RSO Wien, the orchestras of RAI Turin and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Haydnphilharmonie, the Brucknerorchester, the Chapelle Royale and the Klangforum Wien, the Die Reihe ensemble, the MusikFabrik NRW Düsseldorf, the Staatliche Philharmonie Brünn and the MDR Kammerphilharmonie under conductors Adam Fischer, Sir Roger Norrington, Rudolf Barschai, Gary Bertini, Roberto Abbado, Philippe Herreweghe, Johannes Kalitzke, Peter Rundel, Caspar Richter and Franz Welser-Möst.

Anna Maria Pammer has made guest appearances at the Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Klangbogen, Haydnfestspiele in Eisenstadt, Carinthischer Sommer, Steirischer Herbst, Brucknerfest Linz, Wien Modern, Hörgängen and the Bregenzer Festspiele.

In her chamber music concerts, she has performed together with the Arditti String Quartet, Hagen Quartett, Auryn Quartett, Aron Quartett, Bruckner Quartett, Wiener Klaviertrio, Clemens Zeilinger, Florian Müller, Johannes Marian, Paul Gulda, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, András Keller and very frequently with Gidon Kremer—for instance, at Lockenhaus, Gasteig München, the Kölner Philharmonie and Tonhalle Zürich.
Anna Maria Pammer takes particular interest in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Accordingly, she has been involved in numerous world premieres—most recently, Peter Androsch’s opera “Schreber” at Stadttheater Klagenfurt, “Schichtwechsel: Wie gehts Ihnen?” by Manos Tsangaris at the Bühne der Stadt Köln and at the Triennale Köln; Georg Kreisler’s “Der Aufstand der Schmetterlinge” in the Sophiensäle in Vienna, and “Agleia Federweiß” by Gerd Kühr at Steirischer Herbst.
In June and Fall 2002, she sang the role of Princess Anastasia in the world premiere of “Felix oder die Geschichte von einem, der auszog das Gruseln zu lernen,” a jazz fairy tale by Max Nagl at Volksoper Wien.

In November 2002, in addition to performing a work by Gérard Grisey, she was also involved in the world premiere of “Wo Angst auf Umhülle prallt,” Reinhard Fuchs’ piece for voice and orchestra at Wien Modern.
At Steirischer Herbst 2003, she sang the 1st soprano role in the world premiere of Bernhard Lang’s “Theater der Wiederholungen.” This work was produced again in 2006 at the Opéra National de Paris.

Among the highlights of 2004 were appearances with György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments alternating with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and András Keller, occasionally in the presence of the composer himself, in, among other venues, Basel, Aarau, Winterthur, Heidelberg, Brussels and the Amsterdamer Concertgebouw.

The press had the following to say about these concerts:

“Fabulous, the way Pammer and Kopatchinskaja have taken this work and made it their own; how they expose the smallest nuances within it; so convincingly bring out Kurtág’s direct, even unadorned drama that every moment of it is so radiantly clear and so touching. What details become audible here: A minute vocal coloration and abysses open up behind the text and the music. Fantastic the tonal hues that Anna Maria Pammer has available to her as an artist. And this intensity and energy, this readiness to take risks, with which Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s vocal instrument pervades the music and text, brings content to the surface and enables us to experience it directly with our senses. Incredible as well the dramaturgical arc that these two know how to span over this whole giant cycle. For almost an hour, one is utterly spellbound.”
Alfred Zimmerlin, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 13, 2004

“Kurtág likes to dig around in the deepest layers of voice: whispering and shouting, argumentativeness and sighing. But what he thereby demands of a singer in thirty, forty or fifty seconds borders on the inhuman. Technically, Anna Maria Pammer controlled the entire spectrum. Rarely has the bronze low range of a soprano fused so enjoyably with the velvet depths of a violin. But the precision with which Pammer and Keller maneuvered left dents in Kurtág’s very demanding mix of wisdom and objection, irony and disgust, joy and misery.”
Guido van Oorschot, De Volkskrant, December 9, 2004

In August 2005, Anna Maria Pammer sang the role of Denise in the Austrian premiere of Michael Tippett’s “The Knot Garden” produced by the Neue Oper Wien and the Klangbogen.

In September 2005 in New York, she and pianist Clemens Zeilinger staged a series of extremely successful performances that included all of Anton Webern’s lieder for voice and piano. This same program, complemented with lieder by Arnold Schönberg, was repeated in May 2006 at the Schönberg Center in Vienna.

In December 2006, Anna Maria Pammer appeared at the 6th Kawaminami Mozart Festival in Japan. Here, she performed three different concert programs and also conducted a master class that focused on the German lied.
The year 2007 began with performances of György Kurtág’s “Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova” (op. 17) with the Spectra Ensemble under Filip Rathé in Antwerp and Ghent.

Anna Maria Pammer’s discography encompasses approximately 25 titles, including works of music theater by Peter Androsch, Bernhard Lang and Georg Kreisler, as well as “Tiefland” by Eugene d’Albert.

« back

Brucknerhaus 2.0