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Tenor Nicholas Perna’s voice has been praised by the Houston Chronicle as “an impressive sound” while the South Florida Sun Sentinel commended his “emotionally driven performance.” 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’s roles include Don José in “Carmen,” Rodolfo in “La Bohème,” Ravenal in “Show Boat” and Archibald Craven in “The Secret Garden.” His symphonic appearances include Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

One of America’s most in-demand vocal cross-trainers, Perna’s students have performed on stages around the world including Broadway (“Wicked,” “Waitress”), regional theaters and national and international tours (“My Fair Lady,” “Shrek,” “The Sound of Music”). 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 ������Ƶ18 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’s 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’s 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).

Vocal pedagogy����