Pamela Coburn

Born in Dayton, Ohio, Coburn grew up in Cincinnati where her mother was a piano teacher and a choral conductor. Coburn studied at the Indiana University, the Eastman School in Rochester, and the Juillard School with Ed White. She moved to Germany in 1980 and won the ARD International Music Competition the same year. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1982. Her career was promoted by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. She was a member of the Bavarian State Opera from 1982 to 1987 and often returned as a guest. At the Vienna State Opera, she appeared as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, as the Countess in his Le nozze di Figaro, and as Ellen in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, a role which she also performed at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in Munich. She appeared as the Countess also at the Salzburg Festival in 1991 and at the Metropolitan Opera. Her roles have included Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Elettra in his Idomeneo, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.

Coburn recorded Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in a production of the Zurich Opera. In 1990, she recorded Mozart's L'Oca del Cairo conducted by Peter Schreier. She made many other recordings in both opera and concert.