Nancy Allen

Biography

Nancy Allen is a musical theatre performer and instructor who has taught at Belmont for over 20 years. She began her teaching career at Peabody Conservatory as a graduate student in 1993, continued at Austin Peay University and joined the classical voice faculty at Belmont in 1996. Ms. Allen is proud to have been the coordinator of Belmont’s nationally ranked, award-winning musical theatre program for 11 years and a professor in said department for 19. She has students currently performing on Broadway, in Broadway National Tours, with Disney and other cruise lines, non-equity national tours, Off Broadway and in excellent regional equity and non-equity theaters. Her students have received top honors in NATS competitions

At Belmont, Ms. Allen enjoys using innovative techniques and time-honored exercises to cross train the voice for the challenges of musical theater performance. She believes all music is communication and the singer must find the story and emotional connection in every piece, no matter the style. She uses science and imagery to help students realize the fullness of their potential and encourages good vocal hygiene for vocal beauty and longevity. Ms. Allen is certified in Somatic Voicework™, The LoVetri Method - a “body-based method of vocal training which draws from many disciplines” – and incorporates these principles in her teaching and personal performing. She is also certified in level one of Andrew Byrne’s “The Singing Athlete: Brain-based Training of Your Voice”.

After graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University, Ms. Allen attended The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD where she studied with Ruth Drucker, Dr. Thomas Houser and Gordon Hawkins. She received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the conservatory in voice performance and taught voice there before moving to Nashville.

Ms. Allen most recently performed the role of “Old Lady/Blair Daniels” in Sunday in the Park with George with the Nashville Repertory Theatre and has performed professionally in the region for over 30 years. She sang with the Billy Graham Organization, the Nashville Symphony, the Waco Symphony, has performed featured roles with the Nashville Opera Association in their productions of Surrender Road by Marcus Hummon and Puccini’s Turandot and is a regular session singer in the Nashville stuios. In addition to opera and musical theater, Ms. Allen has three CD recordings: “Distant Melody”, which won a Parent’s Choice Award, “Shall We Gather”, and “A Christmas Kiss”; all three can be found on spotify.