Coach/accompanist, piano soloist, singer, and conductor NIKKI STOIA is known for her musical versatility, with repertoire that encompasses traditional and contemporary classical and popular music. Her concert work has taken her to many U.S. cities, including Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Honolulu, and as accompanist for the Smith College Chamber Singers, she appeared in concerts in London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, among others. Ms. Stoia’s performance as piano soloist with the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and her duo-piano recital with conductor Raymond Harvey (Kalamazoo Symphony Director Emeritus) have been aired by National Public Radio. She has also appeared in performances at various U.S. and Canadian venues as a member of the Bob Becker Ensemble and has performed as collaborative pianist in concerts at International Tuba and Euphonium, International Trumpet Guild, and Percussive Arts Society conferences.
Ms. Stoia recently retired as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, as well as Senior Lecturer II and Music Honors Program Director in the Department of Music and Dance, at UMass Amherst. She was a four-time Distinguished Teacher Award nominee and a 2006 Outstanding Academic Advisor Award winner at the University.
From Fall 2003 through March 2005 Ms. Stoia was the Music Director, conductor, and pianist for all the premieres and subsequent performances of the opera “The Captivation of Eunice Williams” (music by Paula Kimper, libretto by Harley Erdman, conceived with Linda McInerney, Stage Director). In the summer of 2008, she served as Head Vocal Coach and Chorus Master for the opera program, Italian Operatic Experience, in Urbania, Italy. Having served as accompanist for the Springfield Symphony Chorus for nineteen years, Ms. Stoia is now in her eighteenth year as Music Director/Conductor of this ensemble. In addition to preparing the SSC for performances with the SSO and for its own recitals, as SSC Director she and the Chorus have collaborated with Avery Sharpe, Kevin Sharpe, and the Extended Family Choir in performances at Symphony Hall and in other Western Massachusetts locations.
Ms. Stoia is the Founder and Director of the Western Massachusetts Singers for Survivors, a chorus of cancer survivors and caregivers, which performs in the Western Massachusetts area to bring attention to cancer survival and support fundraising activities for cancer care.
She is the Director and serves on the Steering Committee of the UMass Unions United Labor Chorus.
She holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Accompanying and Chamber Music from UMass Amherst, acknowledged as a Phi Kappa Phi graduate, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, where she majored in Music and German.