Credentials - Nancy E. Harris
A professional singer and actor in musicals, theatre, and operas for over 40 years, Nancy E. Harris’s wide-ranging experience also includes:
-studying choral music under Robert Shaw
-singing under Sir Malcolm Sergeant with the London Philharmonic
-working as a radio DJ, producer, and TV sound engineer for WUSF
-performing as a movie extra, a professional puppeteer, and a melodrama director
-singing with a French swing band at NATO headquarters
-appearing as the mezzo soloist for the West Coast Premiere of Solomon’s Gardens at Stanford University
-and recording two volumes of children’s anthologies called One Misty Moisty Morning plus two jazz-standards albums, With All My Love, Nance and Nance Sings Love. (For more information and/or to purchase songs, go to Contact Me)
Nancy can also be heard as Marmee on the 2001 Original Cast Album of the Rodgers & Stevens Little Women: The Musical, and on several story-telling CDs. As a member of Opera Colorado’s company, she was in the Naxos recording of John Adams' Nixon in China. In Northern Colorado, she performed multiple times with the Loveland Opera Theatre, created jingles for Pirate Radio, and was a backup singer for the swing band The Kream of the Krop.
An accomplished and widely experienced teacher in the arts, specifically in vocal production and presentation, Nancy has had a private studio for over 50 years, and was a college instructor for 15 years, teaching such things as speech, acting & movement, music appreciation, and multiple humanities courses. She adjudicates and frequently presents vocal workshops, while also working on her first book about her unique teaching methods.
Nancy’s higher education includes:
-a BA in Vocal Music Education, Studio Voice, and Theatre
-a Master of Humanities in Voice, Theatre, Comparative Literature, and Art History
-certificate for the Vocology Institute at the National Center for Voice and Speech
-certification in Lessac-Madsen Resonant Voice Therapy techniques
-certified as a teacher of CoreSinging tm.
In her vocal teaching methods, Nancy incorporates her extensive background in movement, which began when she was a child at the Royal Academy of Ballet in London. Following that interest, she created and directed a large and highly successful psychomotor-development program for children called The Magic of Motion for all of the Denver Community Schools, and was a yoga teacher for over ten years.
In June of 2010, Nancy became a founder and Artistic Director of the Rocky Mountain Opera Company. In 2011 the group morphed into two groups with Nancy becoming Artistic Director of Opera and Beyond. This group continued until her move in 2014 to Arizona. In 2012 she was the Denver- South Center Representative for what was the Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program, now renamed the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program.
Nancy has been described in many ways:
-dynamic -powerful -intelligent -patient -creative -multi-faceted -exploratory -analytical -organized -skilled -experienced -risk-taker -kind -generous -caring -wise -"kick-ass master teacher!" ----all well-deserved accolades.