A recipient of the Curators' Faculty Scholar Award at Central Methodist College, Nancy traveled to New Zealand to attend the Third International Congress of Voice Teachers. She is Professor of Music at Central Methodist College where she produces the annual opera workshop, teaches voice, vocal repertoire, vocal pedagogy, diction, and opera literature. The library of solo vocal literature amassed by Margaret Thuenemann during her thirty year teaching career at Pittsburg State University in Kansas is now housed in the Swinney Conservatory of Music at Central Methodist College. The collection spans many historical periods and languages, including rare publications, imports, and music no longer in print. The annual opera performance presents standard repertoire, cast entirely with students.
Any student studying voice is eligible to audition.
The primary focus is education, giving singers the opportunity to coordinate vocal skills with the ensemble acting requirement of operatic literature. The opera is performed in English with piano accompaniment. Periodically, the production moves from the Conservatory Recital Hall to the College's Little Theatre for a mainstage production.