2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship Winner, Nicholas Perna, DMA

The National Association of Teachers of Singing and The Voice Foundation are delighted to announce Nicholas Perna as the 2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship Award recipient. This prestigious honor includes a $2,000 award to support Perna’s research and the opportunity to attend the 54th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice, May 28-June 1, 2025, in Philadelphia

Perna is a NATS member in the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the West Central Regina and an associate professor of voice and director of vocal pedagogy at the University of Colorado. He currently serves as the NATS Vice President for Outreach (2022-2026) on the NATS Board of Directors and has been the poster paper coordinator for NATS national conferences, including the most recent 2024 gathering in Knoxville, Tennessee. Perna also cohosts VocalFri with Sarah Welch Pigott. The weekly podcast is a member of NATSCast, the official podcast network of NATS.

Perna’s award will go toward his ongoing research centered on velopharyngeal opening (VPO) variability in collegiate treble singers.

“Investigating nasality, nasal airflow, and velopharyngeal opening (VPO) have been central to my research agenda my entire career,” Perna explained. “Our fellowship research seeks to determine whether collegiate treble singers vary VPO as pitch increases. We also want to discover how Western Classical (WC) or Musical Theater (MT) singers VPO differs as pitch increases. We will analyze if there is any correlative behavior in these singers’ contact quotient as pitch increases. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest treble musical theater singers may increase VPO as pitch increases and move into their ‘mixed voice.’ If that is true, this study could aid singers and voice teachers to better understand how to execute climactic higher pitches in an easier and healthier production, specifically in MT styles. I am grateful to have received assistance with research design from Dr. Joshua Glasner with Lions Voice Clinic, and thankful for the help of my two graduate research assistants Alice Del Simone and Benjamin South.

“On a personal note, receiving this honor in my first year at University of Colorado Boulder as the Director of Voice Pedagogy is particularly meaningful. Van Lawrence was one of the voice scientists with whom our program’s founder, Berton Coffin collaborated as he came to his own observations of the singing voice.”

Both the National Association of Teachers of Singing and The Voice Foundation extend their congratulations to Nicholas Perna for his achievements and look forward to findings from his VPO research.