Nicole Kenley, Soprano, has
performed extensively in the United States and Europe in various operas, concerts, and recitals, and for dignitaries such
as the President of Ireland. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Hardin-Simmons University, and her Master
of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where she was the recipient of the Richard Tucker
Award for Opera. During her studies at Eastman, she took a year's sabbatical to study at the Royal Northern College
of Music in Manchester, England, made possible by a scholarship from the Rotary International Foundation.
Nicole has performed a wide range of roles on the operatic stage, including Fiordiligi in Cosi
fan tutte and Clara in Pasatieri's Signor Deluso with the Eastman Opera Theatre. Other performances include
the Mayoress in Royal Northern's production of Jenufa, title roles in Carmen and Dido and Aeneas,
Augusta in The Ballad of Baby Doe, and Florence in Albert Herring. In addition, she has been a regional
finalist in the prestigious MacAllister Awards and the NATSAA competition. She most recently appeared with Sugar Land
Opera as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby's one-woman opera, Bon Appetit. She
has performed with the Houston Grand Opera Chorus and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and is frequently engaged as a soloist
with local performing organizations and regularly presents solo and collaborative recitals.
Nicole is a champion of new music
and has commissioned and premiered many new works. In 2008, she performed the Texas premiere of Nicholas Omiccioli's
Three Poems of Emily Dickinson at the Society of Composers Regional Conference. In addition, she has premiered
two song cycles by Daniel Sigmon, Spirit Walker and Ponderings. She is currently collaborating with
Mr. Sigmon in the commissioning of a new cycle to be called Passages, which will set her own poetry to music.
In 2005, she created the role of Maye in the world premiere performance of Daniel Sigmon and Edward Crowell's opera, Larkspur,
performed in a collaborative production of Abilene Collegiate Opera and Lake House Opera, the latter for which she served
as Artistic Director.
Ms. Kenley lives in Sugar Land, where
she serves as Artistic Director for Imperial Performing Arts and Sugar Land Opera and has recently helped to found the first
professional theatre space in Fort Bend County, The Imperial Theatre at Sugar Land's Town Square (www.theimperial.org). She has directed multiple productions for Sugar Land Opera, including The Imperial Theatre's inaugural production
of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Mozart's The Impresario, the US premiere of Howard Blake's The Station,
and Sigmon/Crowell's What's Your Soup?. She has also directed opera scenes for the Eastman Opera
Theatre as well as mainstage productions of Camelot and a Rodgers and Hammerstein review for Cy-Fair College.
Nicole has taught
on the voice faculty at Sam Houston State University and currently teaches voice and opera at Houston Baptist University.
Ms. Kenley is a member of NATS and Sigma Alpha Iota, and is married to Edward
Crowell, Tenor and Executive Director of Imperial Performing Arts.
