Executive Overview
In a joint announcement that highlights the ongoing convergence of pedagogical art and rigorous voice science, the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and The Voice Foundation have proudly named Dr. Nicholas Perna as the recipient of the prestigious 2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship Award.
This distinguished national honor comes with a $2,000 research grant and a featured platform to present findings at the upcoming 54th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice, scheduled for May 28 through June 1, 2025, in Philadelphia.
Dr. Perna, an associate professor of voice, director of vocal pedagogy at the University of Colorado Boulder, and an active leader within NATS, will apply the fellowship funding directly toward his cutting-edge, empirical investigation into velopharyngeal opening (VPO) variability in collegiate treble singers. By evaluating how nasal airflow, nasality, and velopharyngeal mechanics adapt across varying pitch registers and musical styles—specifically contrasting Western Classical (WC) and Musical Theater (MT) techniques—Perna’s research aims to demystify the physiological adjustments required for healthy, high-register belt and mix singing.
Beyond his academic appointment, Perna is a prominent figure in the broader vocal community. He serves as the NATS Vice President for Outreach (2022–2026), manages poster paper coordination for national conferences, and co-hosts the widely popular weekly podcast VocalFri alongside Sarah Welch Pigott, a core offering of the official NATSCast network.
This article explores the multi-faceted implications of Perna’s award, detailing his career trajectory, the mechanics and hypotheses driving his current VPO study, the historical significance of the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship, and what this milestone signifies for the future of vocal pedagogy and professional voice care.
Detailed Chronology and Professional Background
To understand the weight of Dr. Nicholas Perna receiving the 2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship, one must examine his extensive trajectory as an educator, researcher, and community builder within the vocal arts ecosystem.
Perna’s roots in NATS run deep. Operating out of the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of the West Central Region, he has consistently balanced high-level studio teaching with administrative and organizational leadership. His commitment to the national body is underscored by his current four-year term as the NATS Vice President for Outreach (2022–2026). In this capacity, he has spearheaded initiatives to connect regional chapters, expand professional development opportunities for emerging teachers, and bridge the gap between academic voice science and everyday studio application.
Furthermore, Perna’s dedication to disseminating academic research is evidenced by his long-standing role as the poster paper coordinator for NATS national gatherings, including his pivotal work at the 2024 national conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. Through this role, he has helped cultivate a generation of young researchers, ensuring that empirical methodologies remain at the forefront of voice teachers’ conventions.
Simultaneously, Perna has embraced modern digital media to democratize vocal education. As the co-host of VocalFri with Sarah Welch Pigott, Perna engages weekly with listeners on topics ranging from vocal health and pedagogy myths to interviews with top-tier voice scientists and laryngologists. As part of NATSCast—the official podcast network of NATS—VocalFri has established itself as an authoritative yet accessible audio resource for voice professionals worldwide.
The culmination of these diverse efforts arrived as Perna transitioned into a new institutional home. Taking up his post as the Director of Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Colorado Boulder during the 2024–2025 academic year, Perna immediately marked his arrival by securing the Van L. Lawrence Fellowship. For Perna, this timing carries profound historical resonance:
"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."
This deep-rooted lineage links Perna directly to the foundational architects of modern American voice pedagogy, positioning him not merely as a modern researcher, but as an inheritor of a rich, interdisciplinary tradition that values the union of empirical science and artistic expression.
Supporting Context & Metrics: Decoding the Science of VPO
At the heart of Perna’s fellowship-supported project is a sophisticated physiological investigation: evaluating velopharyngeal opening (VPO) variability in collegiate treble singers.
The Anatomy and Physics of the Velopharynx
The velopharynx refers to the valve formed by the soft palate (velum) and the pharyngeal walls. In normal speech and specific singing styles, this valve regulates the degree of coupling between the oral and nasal cavities. When the velopharynx is open, air flows freely through the nasal cavity (nasality); when closed, airflow is directed entirely through the oral cavity.
Historically, Western Classical (WC) vocal training has heavily emphasized a relatively closed or stable velopharynx across most registers to maintain a rich, resonant, oral-dominant acoustic spectrum (often described as "darkening" or "covering" the tone). Conversely, Musical Theater (MT) pedagogy—particularly in contemporary commercial music (CCM) styles that utilize high mixes and belts—often incorporates varying degrees of nasal resonance to brighten the timbre, ease laryngeal tension, and facilitate higher pitches without excessive vocal fold compression.
Research Design and Hypotheses
Perna’s current investigation seeks to test specific pedagogical assumptions that have long existed as anecdotal studio lore. The study is structured around three core investigative pillars:
- Pitch-Dependent VPO Variability: The research team aims to determine whether collegiate treble singers systematically vary their velopharyngeal opening as their pitch increases. Do singers adjust this valve to accommodate acoustic shifts as they ascend into their upper registers?
- Genre-Specific Contrasts (WC vs. MT): The study will analyze how Western Classical singers and Musical Theater singers differ in their VPO adjustments as pitch ascends. By comparing these two distinct technical paradigms, the researchers hope to map out stylistic divergence in real-time physiological control.
- Contact Quotient Correlation: The team will analyze whether there is a correlative behavior between the singers’ contact quotient (CQ)—measured via electroglottography (EGG), which indicates how long the vocal folds remain closed during a vibratory cycle—and changes in VPO as pitch increases.
Anecdotal Evidence to Empirical Reality
Perna notes that there is substantial anecdotal evidence suggesting treble musical theater singers may systematically increase their velopharyngeal opening as pitch increases and they transition into their "mixed voice."
If substantiated by data, this study could transform how educators approach vocal training. Specifically, it could provide voice teachers with actionable, science-based frameworks to help students execute climactic high notes with greater ease and safer vocal production in contemporary musical theater styles.
To ensure methodological rigor, Perna has enlisted a high-caliber collaborative team. He acknowledges the invaluable assistance with research design provided by Dr. Joshua Glasner of the renowned Lions Voice Clinic, alongside the hands-on operational support of his two graduate research assistants, Alice Del Simone and Benjamin South.
Official Statements and the Legacy of Van L. Lawrence
The Van L. Lawrence Fellowship is not merely a financial grant; it is one of the most respected accolades in the voice science and pedagogy community. Co-sponsored annually by the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and The Voice Foundation, the fellowship was established to honor the memory of Dr. Van L. Lawrence, a pioneering laryngologist whose multidisciplinary vision radically advanced the medical care of the professional voice and bridged the gap between otolaryngologists, speech-language pathologists, voice scientists, and singing teachers.
The award is explicitly designed to support individuals who demonstrate excellence in teaching while pursuing active, empirical research that directly benefits vocal pedagogy. By granting Perna $2,000 and inviting him to present his findings at the 54th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice in Philadelphia (May 28–June 1, 2025), the sponsoring organizations ensure that his work will reach an international audience of top-tier voice care professionals.
Leaders from both organizations have voiced immense enthusiasm regarding Perna’s selection.
In their joint statement, representatives from NATS and The Voice Foundation emphasized the critical nature of bridging studio instruction with clinical voice science:
"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."
For the broader academic community, Perna’s receipt of this fellowship underscores a growing institutional shift. As modern voice pedagogy moves further away from subjective, imagery-based instruction alone and toward a balanced, science-informed model, researchers like Perna are providing the objective data needed to validate—and occasionally correct—historical vocal traditions.
Future Outlook: Implications for Voice Pedagogy and CCM Training
As Dr. Nicholas Perna prepares to take the stage in Philadelphia at the 54th Annual Symposium of The Voice Foundation, the implications of his VPO research extend far beyond the walls of the University of Colorado Boulder. The study represents a vital step forward in the pedagogy of Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM), a genre that has experienced explosive growth in collegiate and professional training programs over the past two decades.
Reforming Contemporary Musical Theater Training
For generations, classical voice training dominated academic institutions, often leaving musical theater performers to navigate the physiological demands of belting and mix-singing through trial and error. While empirical voice science has made great strides in understanding closed-phase vocal fold closure, subglottic pressure, and tract acoustic inertance, the role of the upper vocal tract—specifically the nasal cavity and velopharyngeal port—has remained underexplored in controlled, comparative studies.
By mapping out how treble singers manage VPO variability during high-register vocalization, Perna’s research offers a potential roadmap for vocal health. If treble MT singers do indeed utilize controlled velopharyngeal opening to ease the transition into mixed voice, voice pedagogues will have a clearer physiological target to teach. This could lead to:
- Reduced Vocal Fatigue: Helping singers avoid excessive laryngeal constriction by utilizing vocal tract resonance effectively.
- Streamlined Training Curriculums: Giving teachers concrete tools to explain how to achieve a healthy mix, replacing abstract metaphors with anatomical concepts.
- Injury Prevention: Protecting collegiate and professional performers from vocal pathologies associated with forced, unmanaged high-belt singing.
Expanding the NATS Research Footprint
Perna’s success also highlights the expanding research culture within NATS. Through initiatives like NATSCast, conference poster presentations, and fellowships like the Van L. Lawrence Award, NATS continues to position itself as a global leader in vocal pedagogy. Perna’s dual role as a high-level administrator/podcaster and an active, grant-winning researcher serves as a blueprint for modern voice educators: one must not only teach the art of singing, but actively contribute to the scientific understanding of how the instrument works.
Looking Ahead to Philadelphia 2025
When the voice science community convenes in Philadelphia from May 28 to June 1, 2025, all eyes will be on the podium when Dr. Perna presents the initial findings of his collegiate treble singer study alongside his graduate assistants Alice Del Simone and Benjamin South, with insights shaped in collaboration with Dr. Joshua Glasner.
As the vocal arts community continues to embrace the intersection of art and science, Dr. Nicholas Perna’s 2025 Van L. Lawrence Fellowship stands as a shining example of inquiry, dedication, and forward-thinking pedagogy. The results of his research promise to echo through teaching studios, clinics, and performance halls for years to come, securing a healthier, more scientifically grounded future for singers worldwide.
