Education
Paula Stemkens already knew that music would become an essential part of her life when she was very young. At the age of thirteen she started her singing lessons with Jan Alofs. During her graduation year of the pre-university education she did a preparatory course classical singing with Xenia Meijer at the Fontys School of Fine and Performing Arts. In 2010 she began her bachelor, from which she graduated in 2014. Subsequently she started her Masters, also in Tilburg. During her first year of the master she studied both with Xenia Meijer in Tilburg and Valérie Guillorit at the conservatory of Amsterdam. She earned her first Masters Degree in 2017. In the last year of her Masters she studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und dartstellende Kunst in Stuttgart with Prof. Turid Karlsen, as an Erasmus student. Following she started her second Master in opera studies in Stuttgart in 2017, from which she graduated in 2019.
Furthermore she followed a special course baroque singing, also with Xenia Meijer, and an operetta course with Wilma Bierens, during her Bachelor.
Performances
She already played several different roles. During the theater season 2019/2020 she was soloist at the Gerhart Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz/Zittau. Highlights here were “Sängerin” in “Liebesgrüße aus Muskau”, Dorothy in “Wizard of Oz” and Ciboletta in “Eine Nacht in Venedig”. She also played Adele in “Die Fledermaus”, Belinda and First Witch in “Dido and Aeneas”, Pamina in “Die Zauberflöte, Lucy in “The Telephone”, Gretel in “Hänsel und Gretel”, Knabe in “Actus Tragicus” at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
Furthemore she is active as a freelance singer with ao choirs and orchestras.
Masterclasses
During her career Paula actively participated in several masterclasses. In 2012 she won a scholarship to participate in a Masterclass in Brescia, Italië. Furthermore she took courses with ao Bo Skovhus, Angela Denoke, Margreet Honig, Frithjof Smith (early Barock), Thomas Seyboldt (Schubertlied), Ulrike Hofbauer, Maarten Koningsberger, Konrad Jarnot (Lied), Anne le Bozec (French song), Noelle Turner (Musical Workshop), Henk Neven, Regina Werner, Frans Fiselier, Miranda van Kralingen, Mariëtte Witteveen, Sinan Vural, Lyne Fortin, Johannette Zomer.
Princess Christina Competition
In January 2013 Paula won an incentive award at the Princess Christina competition.
