Artistic Director Plus

Founding one of the nation’s first chamber music collectives, Gold Coast Chamber Players, Pamela Freund-Striplen infuses the same creativity she brings to performing as a violist to designing meaningful concert programs. Special projects like Threads (weaving a story of women composers spanning 1000 years) and Harmony and Melody (highlighting the connection between Dvorak and the Negro Spiritual), explore connections and stories that resonate with audiences and performers alike. Her concert design is part of what distinguishes Gold Coast Chamber Players, garnering them the Arts and Culture Award for Contra Costa County and Best East Bay Chamber Group.

 

Pamela is also Co-Founder of a new Silicon Valley startup, Immersive Experiences (IMX) that offers an innovative experience for non-profit fundraising.

 

Performer

For 11 years Pamela performed with San Francisco Opera Orchestra, including Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  She performed with San Diego Symphony and as Principal Violist with San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera’s touring arm, Western Opera. She has performed with San Francisco Symphony and on their chamber music series, Chamber Music Sundaes.

 

Concertizing internationally in chamber music concerts throughout Europe, Pamela is a guest artist with the Amati Ensemble, performing in the Netherlands and Germany. These performances have included chamber music concerts for “Berlin Enescu Days” and a tour in April 2016 with an all-Mozart quintet program. Pamela performed in Vienna, Straussburg, and throughout Germany with the New European Strings under the direction of Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and later performed with the ensemble at the Seattle International Music Festival.

 

She has been fortunate to perform with legendary musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, William Primrose, Luciano Pavarotti, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and Ray Charles, as well as with a wide variety of acclaimed Gold Coast artists. An active recording artist, she performs for film projects at George Lucas’s recording studio, Skywalker Sound. Pamela attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and continued her studies with the Curtis Quartet in Philadelphia, where she received the Young Musician’s Award in chamber music two consecutive years. Her late viola teacher, Max Aronoff, continues to be a great source of inspiration to her.

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Teacher

A dedicated teacher, Pamela developed three educational programs for Gold Coast Chamber Players and helped found the Stanley Middle School Chamber Music program. She is a chamber music coach in the pre-college program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has maintained a private teaching studio for 30 years. She has been a violin and viola instructor at Occidental College and Saint Mary’s College.