Nicholas听Perna
- Associate Professor of Voice
- Director of Vocal Pedagogy
- VOICE + OPERA + MUSICAL THEATRE
Tenor Nicholas Perna鈥檚 voice has been praised by the Houston Chronicle as 鈥渁n impressive sound鈥 while the South Florida Sun Sentinel commended his 鈥渆motionally driven performance.鈥 Perna has appeared frequently with Opera Mississippi in recent seasons and was a finalist for the American Prize for Men in Opera. He has twice been selected as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist singer.
Equally adept on operatic and musical theater stages, Perna鈥檚 roles include Don Jos茅 in 鈥淐armen,鈥 Rodolfo in 鈥淟a Boh猫me,鈥 Ravenal in 鈥淪how Boat鈥 and Archibald Craven in 鈥淭he Secret Garden.鈥 His symphonic appearances include Mahler鈥檚 鈥淒as Lied von der Erde鈥 and Beethoven鈥檚 Symphony No. 9.
One of America鈥檚 most in-demand vocal cross-trainers, Perna鈥檚 students have performed on stages around the world including Broadway (鈥淲icked,鈥 鈥淲aitress鈥), regional theaters and national and international tours (鈥淢y Fair Lady,鈥 鈥淪hrek,鈥 鈥淭he Sound of Music鈥). His clients have won prestigious competitions including the Lotte Lenya Foundation grand prize and the International Chinese Art Song Competition. Students have been apprentice artists with summer festivals such as The Santa Fe Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. Perna is also honored to teach fellow voice teachers, many of whom have secured tenure-track positions at universities or run successful private studios for classical and musical theater singers.
Perna is an associate professor and director of vocal pedagogy at the 糖心Vlog破解版 where he runs the Berton Coffin Voice Lab and supervises graduate theses and dissertations in voice pedagogy. His work has been published in Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice and VOICEPrints. A Presser Music Foundation awardee, Perna has presented research on four continents at events including the Voice Foundation鈥檚 Symposium, the International Congress of Voice Teachers, the NATS National Conference and Physiology and Acoustics of Singing. His research areas include voice acoustics, nasality in the singing voice, online voice teaching and vocal cross-training.
Perna is the creator and co-host of the VocalFri Podcast (). He holds graduate degrees from the University of Miami and the University of Houston. Previous faculty positions include Mississippi College and West Virginia University. Perna has served as a voice research associate at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and has been on the faculty of continuing education programs such as Donald G. Miller鈥檚 Singing Voice Science Workshop and the Acoustic Vocal Pedagogy Workshop. He currently serves as vice president for outreach for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (2022-2026).