The core of his career had been performing with opera companies and orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, New York Oratorio Society and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. At the UI, Pfund's primary focus is the opera workshop, a class intended to explain the inner workings of opera by allowing students to actually practice it during a two-hour period twice per week. Since his arrival in Moscow, Pfund and his wife, Lynette Pfund, have been developing opera at the UI to make it a successful, shining program. "People perceive opera as big fat people standing on stage and bellowing or making a large noise, and that is not really where the opera industry is today," Pfund said. Opera has always been a type of musical theatre and an expression of words, ideas, beautiful sounds. When a student is struggling, Pfund asks what is not making sense and explains his expectations in a different manner, even with demonstrations, instead of repeating instructions that the student has already heard.