Dr. Sara Maida Nicol

Biography

Sara Maida-Nicol is an Italian linguist, language coach, and lyric soprano with a noted passion for performing and lecturing. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts in Italian from Middlebury College. During her graduate studies, she attended the University of Florence, which sparked her interest in linguistics and culture, leading her to pursue a Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Her early graduate work focused on Italian Linguistics and Dialectology, allowing her the privilege of working with distinguished experts such as Umberto Eco and Marcel Danesi. Maida-Nicol has co-authored a publication titled 'Italian Dialectology' and has contributed several scholarly articles to various academic journals. In her early singing career, she spent summers in Tuscany under the tutelage of Daniel Ferro and has worked with notable coaches. Currently, she teaches Italian Vocal Repertoire at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, remaining an active freelance lecturer in topics related to Italian culture and opera. She also previously taught at Middlebury College, where she created and led a series of diction workshops. As Editor-in-Chief of an Italian magazine, she is committed to promoting opera and supporting young singers through her program 'Opera Tastings.'

Research Interests