Nicole Jenkins

Dr. Nicole D. Jenkins is the Assistant Professor of Voice at Duquesne University. Dr. Jenkins has degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park (BA), The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College (MM), and James Madison University (DMA). At Duquesne University, Dr. Jenkins teaches Applied Voice, Italian and English Diction, German and French Diction, and Opera Workshop.

A native of New York, recent roles Dr. Jenkins has performed include Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sister Rose in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Sharon Graham in McNally’s Master Class. As a solo artist, Dr. Jenkins has appeared with the Albemarle Symphony Orchestra in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she performed various arias for voice and orchestra, and with the Huntington Choral Society in New York as the guest soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana. Dr. Jenkins has also performed in masterclasses in New York with soprano Amy Burton and with prompter at The Metropolitan Opera Joan Dornemann. She received an Encouragement Award from the 2005 American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) Meistersinger Competition conducted by Maestro Edoardo Müller in Graz, Austria, and the following year, she was among fourteen selected to receive a full scholarship to attend the prestigious Renata Scotto Opera Academy in New York. Dr. Jenkins also received a personal invitation to attend the post-graduate program at the Universität (Uni) für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien in Vienna, Austria, where she continued her applied studies with soprano Gabriele Lechner and performed in a masterclass with soprano Eiddwen Harrhy. After studying at the Uni, Dr. Jenkins continued her private voice studies of the bel canto technique in Vienna with renowned tenor Ernst Häfliger and mezzo-soprano Glenys Linos. She returned to the United States after receiving a contract for the 2009-2010 Virginia Opera Spectrum Resident Artist Program. Dr. Jenkins made her Virginia Opera debut in 2010 as Clara in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess under the baton of conductor Peter Mark. She later performed the role of Siegrune in Wagner’s Die Walküre with renowned conductor Joseph Rescigno. In addition to performing roles, Dr. Jenkins worked at Virginia Opera in 2010 as the Special Projects Coordinator to engage local churches in outreach projects for the musical production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess as well as to help promote the Virginia Opera Annual Corporate Sponsorship Program as their panelist and guest performer for Creative Conversations: Arts Are Good For Business with The Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission.

While a DMA Candidate in Voice at James Madison University (JMU), Dr. Jenkins was one of two chosen winners of the JMU School of Music 2020 Concerto/Aria Competition and performed her winning aria, Gaetano Donizetti’s “Piangete voi…al dolce guidami,” from the opera Anna Bolena in 2022 with the JMU Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, at the JMU Institute for Creative Inquiry, Dr. Jenkins also presented a lecture and performed Patrick Oswald's Songs of Vienna, a song cycle set with her poetry taken from her short stories about her life in Vienna, Austria. She also presented Songs of Vienna as a panelist at the JMU 10th Annual African, African American and Diaspora Studies (AAAD) Interdisciplinary Conference in 2020. She was invited to the conference in 2022 as a moderator on the Voices of Race, Modes of Advocacy: Panel 5b. Power of Performance to underscore the importance of expanding the canon of opera and musical theater. Dr. Jenkins also presented a lecture and performed the song cycle “Moments in Sonder: A Guided Narrative Analysis of the Poetry of Dr. Maya Angelou as set by Composer B.E. Boykin.” Dr. Jenkins also served for three years as the Chancel Choir Director and soloist at Dayton United Methodist Church, where she supported their mission and goals by selecting appropriate music to help communicate the weekly worship service sermon theme and by assisting beyond the music director duties during the COVID-19 pandemic with scripture readings and preaching.

As an adjunct instructor at JMU, Dr. Jenkins has taught Group Voice for Musical Theater Concentration, Applied Voice for the JMU School of Music (SOM), and Private Voice for Musical Theater Concentrators for the JMU School of Theater and Dance (STAD). She has also taught General Music Education: Music and Culture, Diction for Singers I: English and Italian Lyric Diction, Diction for Singers II: French and German Lyric Diction, and Opera History and Literature. Dr. Jenkins received the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2022 Mid-Atlantic Region Emerging Leader Award and participated in their highly esteemed Class of 2022 Intern Program at Georgia Southern University. Dr. Jenkins also participated in the 2023 JMU SOM 22nd Annual Choral Fest! as a masterclass instructor for Virginia high school soprano and alto singers, as well as an adjudicator for the 2020 Virginia NATS First Round High School and College Divisions Competition. Dr. Jenkins was also invited to the 25th Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference in 2022 at the University of California, Irvine, where she performed art songs by Margaret Bonds and gave the lecture Performance Anxiety: An Opera Singer’s Perspective. She also gave an online presentation on her doctoral thesis entitled, The Perceived Impact of Asthma and Allergies on Collegiate Voice Students’ Health and Performance Experiences: A Pilot Study at the 2023 NATS Mid-Atlantic Region Conference at Liberty University.

• D.M.A., James Madison University
• M.M., Brooklyn College
• B.A., University of Maryland at College Park

• Applied Voice: Bel Canto Technique, Musical Theatre, Improvisation
• Music Performance Anxiety
• Vocal Pedagogy for Singers with Asthma and Allergies
• Art Song Literature
• Opera History and Literature