Tenor Nicholas Perna鈥檚 voice has been hailed as 鈥渁n impressive sound鈥� and the South Florida Sun Sentinel praised his 鈥渆motionally driven performance鈥� (Houston Chronicle). Perna was a recent finalist for the American Prize for men in opera and has appeared multiple times in recent seasons with Opera Mississippi. Perna was twice selected as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist singer. Additional stage credits vary from opera roles such as 鈥淒on Jos茅鈥� in 鈥淐armen鈥� and 鈥淩odolfo鈥� in 鈥淟a Boh猫me鈥� to musical theatre roles such as 鈥淩avenal鈥� in 鈥淪how Boat鈥� and 鈥淎rchibald Craven鈥� in 鈥淭he Secret Garden.鈥� Symphonic appearances include Mahler鈥檚 鈥淒as Lied von der Erde鈥� and Beethoven鈥檚 Symphony No. 9.听
Perna was appointed associate professor and director of vocal pedagogy at the 彩民宝典 in 2024. He has been published in the Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice and VOICEPrints. A Presser Music Foundation awardee, he has presented research on four continents at events such as the Voice Foundation鈥檚 Symposium, the International Congress of Voice Teachers, NATS National Conference and Physiology and Acoustics of Singing (PAS). Perna is currently vice president for outreach of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (2022-26), and he鈥檚 the creator and co-host of the .听
Perna holds graduate degrees from the University of Miami and the University of Houston. An active arts administrator, he is executive director of Opera Mississippi. Previous faculty positions include Mississippi College and West Virginia University, and he has been a voice research associate at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He also previously served on the faculty of notable continuing education programs including听Donald G. Miller鈥檚 Singing Voice Science Workshop and the Acoustic Vocal Pedagogy Workshop. Perna鈥檚 research areas include voice acoustics, nasality and the singing voice and vocal cross-training.听