Nova Thomas

Assistant Professor I

• Email Address: nthomas@rider.edu
• Phone: (609)921-7100 x8153
• Fax: n/a
• Office: Erdman Hall 5
• Mailing Address: 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton, NJ 08540

Nova Thomas is an assistant professor of voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and professor of professional practice and departmental chair at the New School for Drama, New School University (formerly the Actors Studio Drama School) in New York City.  Her teaching responsibilities include private vocal instruction, dramatic coaching, four progressive semesters of classes for the singing-actor, role preparation and advanced classes in voice and speech training.  She is a recipient of New School University’s most prestigious award for “Excellence in Teaching,” and she is in demand as a master class teacher and speaker.  Recent engagements in this capacity have included the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and National Opera Association Winter Conference, an OPERA America-sponsored event on the training of big voices and several university master classes.  Additionally, she is a teaching-artist and dramatic coach for Westminster Choir College’s summer CoOPERAtive program, and she co-teaches with renowned actor and TONY award winner Denis O’Hare, for the Summer Music Theater Immersion Experience in New York City.

 
As a performer, Ms. Thomas is an internationally acclaimed soprano whose work has been consistently characterized as “ravishing in sound and magical in stage presence” (OPERA/London).   International appearances have taken her to the opera houses of Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Paris, London, Dublin, Belfast, Mexico City, and Hong Kong.  In this country she has performed with the opera companies of New York City, Philadelphia, Santa Fe, Seattle, Baltimore, Detroit, San Diego, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Knoxville, Houston, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Nashville, Costa Mesa, New Jersey, El Paso, Syracuse, and Anchorage (among others). Concert engagements have included performances with the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Indianapolis Symphony.  Her repertoire features the heroines of La Traviata, Il Trovatore, Norma, Otello, Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Il Trittico, Macbeth, La Boheme, Faust, Cosi fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Anna Bolena, Don Giovanni, Turandot, Dialoques des Carmelites, and Les Contes d’Hoffman.  She has enjoyed a close collaboration with Dame Joan Sutherland and Maestro Richard Bonynge – the latter with whom she recorded the title role in the Bohemian Girl for Decca Records.

Ms. Thomas is originally from North Carolina, and she has received her home state’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the arts.  She serves with General Henry Hugh Shelton, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a member of his board of directors for a national leadership initiative.