A singer trained in only one style is leaving half their instrument unbuilt. We hear a bright, forward, Broadway sound walk into the rehearsal room and reach for the same correction every time. But what if that instinct is the problem?
She belts in musical practice after school and sings Palestrina on Sunday morning, and somewhere along the way we told her she had to pick one. Choir directors tend to reach for the tried and true: “darken it, round it, make it sound like a choir singer.” or RAISE YOUR SOFT PALETTE!
Today on the show, I’m joined by Dr. Nicholas Perna to take that instinct apart. Nick is a professor and the director of vocal pedagogy at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he runs the Berton Coffin Voice Lab. He’s a working tenor in musical theater and classical work, so he lives in both worlds instead of theorizing about them.
The heart of our conversation is vocal cross-training, and Nick brings the science. We get into his nasality research, which surprised me: the brightness we hear as nasal is not air going through the nose, and actual nasal airflow is a dull, dopey sound. We talk about his study on straight tone, why he refuses to use the phrase healthy singing, and his blunt practical advice for choir directors, including the first thing you should buy for your classroom. Hint: It is not music.
So, stick around and find your ideas and beliefs challenged and stimulated. I know I did as we worked from initial disagreement about the concept of “vocal health” into a shared understanding. Then bring your ideas and reactions to the episode over to the Choralosophers Facebook page or the FREE Substack comment sections.
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Dr. Nicholas Perna is Associate Professor and Director of Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Colorado Boulder. There, he directs the Berton Coffin Voice Lab and supervises graduate theses and dissertations in voice pedagogy. Perna was the 2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellow for research focusing on velopharyngeal opening in treble musical theater singers. He has publications in the Journal of Singing, the Journal of Voice, and VOICEPrints, and he authored a chapter in the Oxford Handbook on Voice Pedagogy. A Presser Music Foundation awardee, he has presented research on four continents at events such as the Voice Foundation’s Symposium, the International Congress of Voice Teachers, the NATS National Conference, the PAVA Symposium, and the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing (PAS). Dr. Perna’s research areas include voice acoustics, nasality and the singing voice, online voice teaching, and vocal cross-training. Perna is a Pan American Vocology Association (PAVA) Recognized Vocologist. For ten seasons, Dr. Perna has been the creator and co-host of the VocalFri Podcast (http://www.vocalfri.com), a vetted, cited, and trusted source for cutting-edge voice pedagogy and voice science information.
As an in-demand vocal cross-trainer, Perna’s students have appeared on stages throughout the world. Student successes include appearances on 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 also been apprentice artists with prestigious summer festivals, including The Santa Fe Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. Additionally, he is a sought-after mentor of fellow voice teachers. Those students have earned tenure-track and adjunct positions at universities, served as NATS Interns (4), and run successful private studios.
Perna’s tenor voice has been hailed by the Houston Chronicle as “an impressive sound,” and the South Florida Sun Sentinel praised his “emotionally driven performance.” He appeared multiple seasons with Opera Mississippi and was a finalist for the American Prize for Men in Opera. Perna was twice selected as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist singer. Equally adept on operatic and musical theater stages, roles to his credit include Don José in Carmen and Rodolfo in La Bohème, as well as Ravenal in Show Boat and Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden. Symphonic soloist appearances include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Lloyd Weber’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Perna holds graduate degrees from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and the University of Houston Moores School of Music. Previous faculty positions include West Virginia University, Mississippi College, and New World School of the Arts. During his tenure in Mississippi, Perna was a voice research associate at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He has also served on the faculty of notable continuing education programs such as the Westminster Voice Pedagogy Institute, Donald G. Miller’s Singing Voice Science Workshop, and the Acoustic Vocal Pedagogy Workshop. Perna is currently president-elect (2026-2028) of the National Association of Teachers of Singing after serving four years as vice president for outreach.
IG: @vocalfriperna
YouTube: Nicholas Perna, tenor and teacher
• Info about singing with me at Carnegie Hall next April
• The album that I just put out with the University of Southern Maine
• Pattern in the Pandemonium
• My social media on Instagram and TikTok
• The new Phoenix Chorale album coming out soon that features my music (FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT THIS BUT IT’S COOL! lol) (More info here)
@choralosophypodca