McGill University Schulich School of Music - Ph.D.
New England Conservatory - M.M.
Oberlin Conservatory - B.M.
Bulgarian-British-American soprano, researcher, and teacher Theodora Ivanova Nestorova loves creating interdisciplinary and cross-cultural musical connections. She was a 2018-2019 Fulbright Study/Research Grant Recipient to Vienna, Austria, studying MA Lied/Oratorio at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien and conducting voice science research. Theodora graduated with an MM (Vocal Pedagogy & Music-in-Education Concentration) from the New England Conservatory in 2021 and a BM (Voice Performance/Musicology) from Oberlin Conservatory in 2018. She is now pursuing an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. at McGill University's Schulich School of Music.
Theodora has a passion for teaching voice lessons of multiple singing styles, musical genres, voice types, and age groups. Previously, Theodora has taught privately and at community music schools, including New England Conservatory, Oberlin College, Boston Hope Music Project, and Avon School & Strongsville Academy of Music. Theodora’s teaching philosophy strives to instill healthy vocal technique and develop each individual student's unique musicianship and voice. Through evidence-based vocology practices, she helps students discover the tools they need to communicate lifelong with the world through the medium of music.
As a scholar, Theodora was awarded the Pan American Vocology Association’s Best Student Presentation for her original vibrato research, and won the Oberlin Alumni Fellowship Grant as well as the New England Conservatory Low Latency Project Grant. Theodora has also published her work in PAVA’s InFormant and presented at The Voice Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Symposium, the National Opera Association conference, Voice Foundation’s New Investigator Research Forum, and the International Symposium on Performance Science. A dedicated member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Theodora has both formed and led new student chapters at several institutions and is now a board member of the International Montréal NATS Chapter.
The 2018-2019 first-place winner of the American Prize in Vocal Performance (Art Song), Theodora is an avid early and contemporary musician. She has recorded world premiere compositions at the Bulgarian National Radio, with the Indictus Project, and has performed in New England Conservatory (NEC)'s Liederabend Series in Jordan Hall, Balabanov’s House Music Days International Festival, Wien Modern Festival, Bang on a Can, and Emmanuel Music’s The Bach Institute. An emerging opera singer, Theodora’s recent operatic credits include Tamiri (Il re pastore) [New England Conservatory Opera], Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Noémie (Cendrillon), and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) [Schlosstheater Schönbrunn], as well as Oberto (Alcina) [Oberlin Opera Theater], and Amore (L’incoronazione di Poppea) [Oberlin in Italy]. Theodora was a featured soloist in Mozart’s Requiem (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Brookline), Handel’s Messiah (Credo Music—Oberlin), and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung (Oberlin Mozart Players).
Theodora has been playing piano for 20 years, is a formerly competitive figure skater, and a linguaphile with a passion for traveling. An international musician, she also offers language and pronunciation/diction lessons in German, French, Italian, and Slavic languages. For more information, visit: theodoranestorova.com