Nan Hughes Poole

We are delighted that Banff mezzo-soprano Nan Hughes Poole is the Voice Coach again for The Shoe Project in Canmore in 2021..
For those who haven’t met Nan yet, she’s an incredibly warm person who immediately makes you feel at ease. She gives the participants all the tools they need to tell their stories in front of a big audience and in a language that is not their mother tongue.

Nan graduated cum laude in English and American Literature from Harvard University and received a master’s degree in music from Boston University. She also attended the Juilliard Opera Center, studying with Beverley Johnson. A long-time resident of Banff, Alberta, Nan has been a faculty member of the Banff Centre’s Music and Sound program and an active promoter of Bow Valley’s artistic community. Her passion as a performer, educator and volunteer organizer garnered her a YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2019.

Her solo orchestral appearances include the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra in Hamburg, and the Dnipropetrovsk Symphony Orchestra in Ukraine. She has toured throughout Europe, the United States and Brazil as a soloist with New York’s Continuum, a contemporary chamber music ensemble. Her many career highlights include a televised performance at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, a contemporary recital at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, performances at the Warsaw Autumn festival, the role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville at the Aspen Festival, and cabaret with the Boston Pops.

Photo credit: Alexis McKeown