Soprano Tamra Paselk, a native of El Paso, Texas now residing in New York City, is a critically acclaimed singer known for her ability to captivate audiences while bringing characters and stories to life. She was praised by the New York Concert Review for delivering a “consistently evocative, engrossing account of Britten’s Les Illuminations and by Lucid Culture, “…these were not easy songs to sing, but Ms. Paselk owned them, moving from clenched-teeth intensity to redemptive joy to end on an unexpectedly rapt note.”
Her favorite performances include Musetta (La Boheme), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Pamina and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Noemie (Cendrillon), Ilia (Idomeneo) and Despina (Cosi fan tutte). Equally at home on the operetta stages, Ms. Paselk has been seen nationwide on Gilbert & Sullivan and Offenbach stages as Yum Yum (Mikado), Josephine (HMS Pinafore), Inez (Les Bavards) and Genevieve (Genevieve de Brabant).
Oratorio and concert repertoire includes Britten’s Les Illuminations, Brahms’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Rutter’s Requiem, Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées, Rodrigo’s Cuatro Canciones, Poulenc’s Fiançailles pour rire and Jake Heggie’s Natural Selection. She has been featured in concert with the El Paso Symphony, San Francisco Opera Guild, San Francisco Ballet, The Choral Society of Marin, San Francisco Pocket Opera, Golden Gate Opera, Martinez Opera Company, Lamplighters SF, Village Light Opera Group New York, The New York Opera Forum, Liederkrantz Hall New York, the cell NYC, Central City Chorus New York and the Park Avenue Orchestra China Tour.
An ardent proponent of contemporary classical and cross-over musical theater works, Ms. Paselk has appeared as Carmela in Hector Armienta’s new work, La Llorona, Laeticia (The Old Maid and the Thief), Johanna (Sweeney Todd), Catherine (Riders to the Sea), Soloist (West Side Story Ballet Suite) and as Lucy Brown (Three Penny Opera). Her portrayal of Lucy in the Three Penny Opera garnered praise by 21st Century Music News as being “heart wrenching and hair-raising”. In New York, multiple recitals have featured works by living composers David Garner, Conrad Susa, Susan Alexjander, David Ward-Steinman and Ian Dickenson. In the fall of 2010, Tamra paid tribute to the life and work of Edith Piaf with the One World Symphony. In 2013, she was featured with the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra presenting works by Irving Berlin and living composer, Gary Fagin, in a home concert for Mark Rylance.