Dr. Pamela Burns-Bell is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Her educational preparation includes a Bachelor of Music Education from Alabama State University, a Master of Music from Southern Illinois University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She is currently an associate professor of music at Talladega College, where she conducts the voice studio. Dr. Burns-Bell provides her vocal students with opportunities to participate and observe master classes held by professional voice professors and professional performers with major opera companies. She has had first place winners and participants at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Vocal Auditions and a winner in the 2023 Mary E. Singletary Vocal Competition.
Dr. Burns-Bell’s performance credits include a two-time encore performance of “Bess” from Porgy & Bess (Concert version) with world-renown baritone William Warfield and the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. Performance credits also include Soprano soloist for Mozart’s Mass in C, with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, soloist on CD recording Poulenc’s Gloria with Maestro Adrian Gnam, Conductor Emeritus of the Macon Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Burns-Bell was regularly featured as guest soloist for the Holiday Pops Concert with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra under the baton Maestro Thomas Hinds, conductor. Operatic roles include “Saffi” in Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron, “Donna Elvira” in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, “Susannah” in Sky Sash So Blue, and “Miss Newkirk” in Menotti’s Help, Help the Globbolinks! She has also been a soloist and member of The Frederick Douglas Hall Community Choir, Dr. Joel Jones, conductor, and the Montgomery Symphony Chorale directed by Dr. Becky Taylor.
Dr. Burns-Bell is equally at home with musical/dramatic theatre. She has performed in Rogers/Hammerstein’s South Pacific, Lerner/Lowe’s Brigadoon, Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, and in Cole Porter’s Chicago. Theatrical credits include “Sister Margaret” in Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, and “Missy” in Udell’s Purlieto.
She is a two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera Regional auditions and has presented lectures and recitals at the Japanese Cultural Institute, the Hawaii International Conference on the Arts and Humanities, and the 105-HBCU Symposium held at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center. She was selected to serve as a regional Adjudicator for the 105 Voices of History and presented vocal master classes in colleges and high schools in Alabama and Georgia.
Dr. Burns-Bell holds memberships in the Alabama Choral Directors Association (ACDA), National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, Beta Nu Omega Chapter.
