Casella Pamela

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Photograph by TOM REESE/THE SEATTLE TIMES
SeattleVoiceStudio.com is the voice studio of International Artists Pamela Casella and Craig H. Nim. While we have been long successful in opera, concert, recital, musical comedy, symphony concerts, television and radio, we are proud not only to be working with other colleagues and professionals, but also to those rising talents who show great potential and love for the arts.

As an established voice teacher in NYC, Germany and Seattle, both at home and at Cornish Institute, many of Ms. Casella’s students have not only sung in Fifth Avenue Theater (it not being uncommon to have 6 to 9 of her students in a single production there), Issaquah Theater, Civic Light Opera, Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue Opera performances, as well as Mr. Nim and Ms. Casella's own opera company, Lyric Opera Northwest (www.lonw.org), but they have also appeared on Broadway, and others have gone on to the Metropolitan Opera studio, the Zurich Opera studio, full scholarships at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Indiana School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Northwestern University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the LaGuardia Performing Arts High School in NYC, Cornish Institute and various other conservatories and music schools throughout America and Europe. Ms. Casella's students have also gone on to winning the Metropolitan Opera auditions and Seattle Opera Guild grants.

Pamela Casella, acclaimed international artist, winner of the Luciano Pavarotti Competition (in which she was asked to sing the role of Mimi in La Boheme), Columbia Artist and veteran of major opera companies and symphony orchestras on both continents, was described by Maestro Nicola Rescigno as being one of only two American sopranos he had ever known who understood what is meant by "bel canto." Maestro Rescigno, if you will recall, was one of the founders of the Chicago Opera [see http://www.lyricopera.org/about/lyric-history.aspx] and responsible for the importation of bel canto sensation Maria Callas to American audiences. [See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDQkgjzky44 to understand their collaboration a little better]. After Ms. Casella's audition with him, he hired her to sing Desdemona in Verdi's "Othello" with the Dallas Opera

When one, then, understands the rarity of the exponents of this majestic vocal art of the bel canto, one begins to understand the intrinsic value and profoundly uncommon knowledge of a teacher of this magnitude.

Ms. Casella was a Columbia Artist who, after studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, was the first voice heard in the Seattle Opera’s opening performance of Wagner’s RING OF THE NEIBELUNGEN, singing the role of Woglinde. She went on to sing many other roles there, some of which were The First Lady in Mozart’s “Magic Flute,” Micaela in “Carmen,” Mimi in “La Boheme,” the High Priestess in "Aida" with Martina Arroyo, Pousette in "Manon" and finally the Seattle Opera invited her to return again and sing the much more intensive and demanding role of Santuzza in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.” She also appeared with the Seattle Symphony singing the role of Marguerite in Gounod’s “Faust.”

From Seattle, she has performed with virtually all the major opera companies, some of which include San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Houston, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Boise, Sacramento, Vancouver, B.C., Anchorage, Alaska and the American Opera Center at Juilliard.

Moving on to the east coast, she toured the United States as both Mimi and Musetta in “La Boheme” and as Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni,” and Cio Cio San in "Madama Butterfly," hitting every major city. She performed Gretel with the Pittsburgh Opera. She also performed all over the United States with her husband, Craig Nim, in a series of Symphony Pops Concerts, conducted by Norman Leyden, who was the arranger for The Glenn Miller Orchestra back in WWII.

Other conductors she worked with include Maestros Nicola Rescigno, Max Rudolph, Eugene Ormandy, Zubin Mehta, Anton Guadagno, Anton Coppolla, Kurt Herbert Adler, Stephan Minde, Gunther Schuller, Michelangelo Veltri, Reiner Miedel, Willie Waters, Eve Queller, and numerous others.

There were also the demanding, aforementioned performances of Desdemona in Verdi’s “Othello” with the Dallas Opera and Maestro Nicola Rescigno. She has sung with Eve Queler’s Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Verdi’s “Nabucco” in the role of Anna. She sang Tosca in a concert performance at Alice Tully Hall where she garnished the following critique by Bill Zakariasen of the New York Daily News: “In the first act duet from Tosca, Casella’s opulent, easily produced voice, fiery temperament and feel for the grand line showed solid credentials for a distinguished international career.” She also covered Tosca in Bremen, Germany and Genoa, Italy, and was asked to sing “Die Zauberflote” in Avignon and Nice, France.

Ms. Casella was a first place winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera competition. Then, from a field of 3,000 contestants, she won the Luciano Pavarotti Opera Competition in 1985 and was selected to sing with Maestro Pavarotti in “La Boheme.” She achieved a gold medal in the MacAllister Competition (from a field of over 2,000 contestants). She won first place in the grand finals of the San Francisco Opera Merola program, and has been awarded top grants with the Minna Kaufmann Rudd Foundation and the Astral Foundation competitions.

New York critic Peter G. Davis said the following of her performances as the Marquese in Verdi’s early work “Un Giorno di Regno,” “One by one the characters introduced themselves with a parade of awkward gestures, until Pamela Casella appeared late in act one and the Marquese and proceeded to show up everyone with her witty acting and ability to bring a strong personality into sharp focus. Her voice is also attractive and technically accomplished, all indicative of an exceptional talent that should go far.” Her performances of Ariadne in Glimmerglass Opera’s production of Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos” elicited the following response from Will Crutchfield of the New York Times: “Ariadne herself was Pamela Casella whose steely but steady voice cut through the orchestra till the end.” She is an accomplished veteran of the concert and recital stage, performing across the United States, reaching many varied audiences.

Craig H. Nim
Mr. Nim is a veteran of NY City Opera, soloed with the NY Philharmonic, appeared with opera companies on both continents, including Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, Baltimore Opera, Bremen Oper, Omaha Opera, San Francisco Opera Merola Program, on Broadway, on national tours, in dinner theaters, summer stock, recitals, concerts, oratorios and numerous other venues in both classical and American musical comedy, TV, radio, commercials, etc.
A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, Mr. Nim had 45 professional musical comedies and 24 professional operas under his belt at the time of graduation, as well as 3 performing arts union cards (Actors Equity, AGMA and AFTRA). His experience grew exponentially in the ensuing years, including radio, national television and movies, and he was a prize winner in several international vocal competitions. An extremely versatile performer, Mr. Nim won these national and international competitions as a bass, a bass-baritone and a heldentenor (1996 Lauritz Melchior Heldentenor Competition prize money winner). For an explanation of how Mr. Nim accomplished this amazing cross-fach feat, look no further than this voice studio, and our on-line e-book.
For more information, contact the studio at pam@seattlevoicestudio.com or craig@seattlevoicestudio.com, or call (206) 938-7820.