(Her) pianistic palette also expanded to suggest the gamut of symphonic timbres, from arpeggiated fluvial strings, to flute-like floral brilliance.
The Flying Inkpot Concert Review
ABOUT
The first Singaporean to have graduated from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria, Pamela Krakauer obtained her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano pedagogy with distinction in 2013 and 2015. She studied piano with Andreas Weber, piano pedagogy with Thomas Böckheler, chamber music with Tünde Kurucz, and choral conducting with Herbert Böck. Musicology was a central component of her studies, during which she did research on Schumann and Heine, and gastronomic motifs in Italian comic opera.
A former University student assistant at the Leopold Mozart Institute for Young Talents, she is also an active répétiteur with an affinity for opera and the art song repertoire. She collaborated with singers at the Franco-American Vocal Academy in a 2013 production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, in rehearsals of Mozart’s Requiem, in Lange Nacht der Kirchen concerts, and in masterclasses and Lieberabende in Austria and Germany.
Prior to her studies at the Mozarteum, she was a recipient of the 2007 University of Southern California Academic Merit Award. During her stint in Los Angeles as a graduate student in the English department, she also worked as an Assistant Lecturer teaching writing and critical thinking classes to undergraduates, took several classes in music history, and received piano instruction from faculty members at the USC Thornton School of Music.
From 2002-2006, she was a member of the University Scholars Program at the National University of Singapore, where she received her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Literature. Her last piano teacher in Singapore was Lim Tshui Fang. Pamela’s humanities background has served her in good stead when it comes to music and going beyond the piano as well, as a freelance editor for academics and other Austrian tertiary institutions.
A combination of fortuitous circumstances led to 6 years of formal study in piano pedagogy at the Mozarteum, having declined the acceptance offer to pursue a piano performance degree at London's Royal College of Music.
In Austria, she attended masterclasses at the Mozarteum summer academy and learned the fundamentals of good piano teaching in various ways, having been mentored by Matthias Kontarsky during her semester-long teaching internship at Musikum Salzburg. She was also a piano instructor at the American International School of Salzburg from 2014 to 2016. In addition, she has supported fellow music students who pursue piano as a second instrument at the Mozarteum.
Having undergone education in mainstream Singaporean schools and a conventional ABRSM piano education as a child with the cello as her second instrument, Pamela hopes to work with students to successfully navigate the demands of the academic system to establish a good piano foundation, without compromising on the joy and spontaneity of music making.
A lover of the arts and an advocate of an all-rounded approach to music education, she believes in honouring the unique capabilities of each individual. She values her own self-development as a person and musician, and is committed to working with serious piano students to develop their confidence, creativity, and musicality, so they can cultivate a love for learning, music, and the arts.
Since her return to Singapore in July 2019, Pamela has performed at venues such as the Esplanade Recital Studio, The Arts House, and Changi Jewel. The beginning of 2020 saw her play the piano reduction of Beethoven's Fidelio as part of the civic district's Night to Light Festival. She has performed with SSO flautist Miao Shanshan, soprano Rebecca Reavley and baritone John Lee. She has also interviewed visiting guest musicians and hosted pre-concert talks for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Music Makers, and the Resonance of Singapore Singers.
a rare musicologist with vast, encyclopaedic knowledge of musical styles, a gifted and flamboyant improviser at the piano whose spontaneity is unparalleled...
ABOUT
The Viennese musicologist Dr. Peter Krakauer is Professor Emeritus at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, and former Professor of Music Theory and History at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. He started his academic career in 1982 at the Department of Music Pedagogy at the Mozarteum as University Assistant to Professor Wolfgang Roscher, before getting his tenure in 1993 at the Department of Musicology. His early research focused on polyaesthetics and the integrative possibilities of music education in bridging cultural differences.
With an illustrious teaching career spanning nearly 40 years, he has taught classes on European music history from antiquity to the 21st century, jazz and popular music, musical theatre, history of opera, film music, as well as ethnomusicology and music anthropology. He has undertaken field trips to do research on musical traditions and practices on the old Amish order in Iowa and Illinois.
The crux of his interdisciplinary approach to teaching lies in getting his students to reflect on music as a social and cultural phenomenon, and its ideological usages, while challenging them to think about evolving notions of high art, the popular, and the hegemony of Western classical music. Dr. Krakauer has hosted lectures throughout Europe and North America, and was invited on numerous occasions to give talks at the University of Minneapolis, Carleton University in Ottawa, and the University of Granada. He has been keynote speaker at symposiums held in Austria and Germany and was also the curator of a 2010 Mahler exhibition held at the National Arts Center in Ottawa.
As the former head of Musicology at the Mozarteum, he organised symposiums on Puccini, Schumann and Wagner, often in conjunction with the birth year or death anniversary of these composers. He was also a commission member of several boards in charge of curriculum development, planning, and the implementation of doctoral programs. Since 2002, he has been the general editor of the Varia Musicologica series comprising more than 30 books ranging from topics such as the Middle Ages to Contemporary Music, under the Peter Lang publishing house based in Bern.
Community and school outreach programmes are a cornerstone of his musicological profession and vision to make music relevant for everyone. Dr. Krakauer is a frequent guest at the Österreichischer Rundfunk and some of his past interviews with Johannes Leopold Mayer explored topics such as French Chansons, music and erotics, and Salzburg’s composers apart from Mozart: from the Monk of Salzburg to Klaus Ager.
Since 2004, he has been collaborating annually with Akzente Salzburg, the Salzburg Easter Festival, its former director Sir Simon Rattle and its current director Christian Thielemann, to promote musical literacy and opera appreciation among high school students. He conducts workshops for school teachers on how to understand opera and has addressed thousands of students over the years, with the vision of nurturing future generations of opera lovers.
A trained conductor who studied at the Vienna Conservatory, Dr. Krakauer is also a certified piano instructor who taught piano in public music schools for 12 years in the province of Lower Austria during his time as a musicology student at the University of Vienna. In addition, Dr. Krakauer is a gifted and versatile improviser who can compose in virtually all styles and genres, a testimony to his vast and intimate knowledge of all musical idioms. Most recently, he composed music in response to The Gleaming Man, a triptych of prose, poetry and artwork by Singapore-based artists and writers.
Dr. Krakauer hopes to collaborate with fellow arts practitioners, other organisations and academics, and to share his expertise and diverse experiences on music with students, friends, different communities, and audiences.
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