About
A native of Waxhaw, North Carolina, Nicholas Pierle, DMA, is a conductor, tenor, and educator whose work spans secondary, collegiate, church, and community music settings throughout the United States and abroad. He currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at Savannah Arts Academy, where he leads a comprehensive choral program for one of Georgia’s premier arts high schools. Pierle recently completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Music at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. During his doctoral studies, he served as Director of Music Ministries at Grace Lutheran Church in Champaign, Illinois. Prior to moving to Illinois, he was Adjunct Professor of Music at Queens University of Charlotte, teaching undergraduate conducting and assisting with the university’s choral ensembles, including the internationally award-winning Royal Voices of Charlotte. He also taught middle school choir and general music in the Fort Mill School District in South Carolina.
As a conductor, Pierle has worked with singers of all ages and experience levels. Recent conducting engagements include performances of the world premiere for Shane Scott Cook’s Garden Lore with the Choral Arts Initiative, Orff’s Carmina Burnana and Jonathan Dove’s The Passing of the Year with the Montreal Summer Music Academy; Margaret Bonds’s Credo and Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Eastman School of Music; Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands as part of his DMA degree recital and the U.S. premieres of Karen Rehnqvist’s Silent Earth at the University of Illinois; Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Bond’s Simon Bore the Cross with the ELCA Choirs of Champaign-Urbana; and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Queens University of Charlotte Chamber Singers. He also prepared and conducted the University of Illinois Men’s Glee Club for its performance at the Illinois ACDA State Convention in 2023. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to prepare choirs for and collaborate with distinguished conductors, including André Thomas, Ann Howard Jones, Hilary Apfelstadt, and Kathy Romey.
Pierle’s passion for music extends beyond the podium and into the classroom. He has taught students from kindergarten through graduate school, fostering musicianship, artistry, and lifelong engagement with music. His students have performed at venues including Belk Theater in Charlotte, Universal Studios in Orlando, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. He has directed productions of The Wiz, Annie, and Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr., and his students have earned recognition through National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions and acceptance into collegiate music programs throughout the country.
Pierle’s research interests center on the intersection of choral pedagogy, voice science, singer agency, and choral literature. His doctoral dissertation, Anatomy, Agency, and Artistry: A Qualitative Case Study of Estill Voice Training® in a High School Choir, examined the implementation of Estill Voice Training® within a secondary choral setting and its influence on students’ vocal development, artistic decision-making, and rehearsal engagement. Through a semester-long qualitative case study, the project explored how biomechanical vocal concepts can empower young singers to make informed artistic choices while fostering healthy, efficient, and stylistically flexible singing. Recognized with a Special Recognition Award in the University of Illinois Graduate College’s prestigious Research Live! competition, the study contributes to the growing body of literature connecting contemporary voice pedagogy and choral practice.
Additionally, his research, titled “(Ch)Oral Twang: Applying Estill Voice Model Strategies to the Choral Rehearsal,” has been presented at the Symposium for Research in Choral Singing (Chicago, 2026). The presentation was subsequently selected for the 13th Estill World Voice Symposium in Hong Kong (2027), highlighting the growing interest in the application of voice science and Estill Voice Training® within choral settings. His scholarship has also been featured at the National and Southern Region ACDA Conferences through the presentation “Passions Past and Present: The Influence of Early Music in Contemporary Passion Settings” (2025, 2026), as well as the North Carolina ACDA Sunday Seminar Series with “Accessible Choral-Orchestral Masterworks for the High School Choral Program” (2024).
Committed to lifelong learning and professional growth, Pierle has participated in conducting masterclasses with William Weinert, Malcolm Merriweather, Simon Carrington, Gregory Buchalter, Jean-Sébastien Vallée, and Larry Rachleff. His additional professional experiences include participation in the Premiere Project Festival with Choral Arts Initiative, Montreal Choral Music Academy, Summer at Eastman, Miami Music Festival, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and Varna International Music Academy. Most recently, he served as assistant conductor of the Royal Voices of Charlotte at the Kathaumixw International Choir Competition in 2023 and the Preveza International Choral Festival in 2024, where the choir earned first-place honors at both competitions.
As a performer, Pierle has appeared throughout the United States and Europe, including performances at Carnegie Hall, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and venues across the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. Recent operatic and musical theatre roles include Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore, Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd, Mr. Erlanson in A Little Night Music, and the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. As a tenor soloist, he has appeared in performances of Ted Hearne’s Privilege, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Bach’s Actus Tragicus, Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, and Handel’s Messiah.
Pierle earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Music from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Andrea Solya, Scott MacLeod, Andrew Major, and Jerold Siena. He holds Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting, Vocal Performance, and Vocal Pedagogy from East Carolina University, where he studied with James Franklin and Jami Rhodes, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music: Vocal Performance from High Point University, where he studied with Marc Foster and Scott MacLeod. He is certified in Estill Figure Proficiency through Estill Voice International, having studied with Kimberly Steinhauer, Lara Brooks, and Sarah Wigley.