Allen Henderson

Executive Director Allen Henderson has announced his plans to retire from the National Association of Teachers of Singing at the end of this calendar year, December 31, 2025. After 17 years in the role, his tenure accounts for one of the most active and expansive periods in the nonprofit’s history.

“Allen has brought a rare combination of mentorship, vision and selflessness to this role,” NATS President Alexis Davis-Hazell said. “He has led with integrity, built enduring partnerships, and brought the voice community together in the most crucial times of action. Allen will always be an important part of NATS membership. His impact on NATS and the entire voice profession has been immeasurable. Our community has been so fortunate to benefit from his steady commitment during a period of enormous growth. I’m thankful to him in a professional capacity for his democratic leadership style and the countless hours he has dedicated to this association. As a personal note, it’s been a pleasure to get to know Allen through our near daily interactions. After many years of diligent hard work and travel representing NATS, it makes me happy to know he will have even more time to devote to family and friends.”

Before his appointment of executive director in 2008, Henderson served NATS as a district and regional governor and was elected national secretary/treasurer from 2006 to 2008. He served as interim executive director from 2007 to 2008. He was a participant in the 1993 NATS Intern Program and later hosted the program in 1998. In 2008, he also served as chair of the coordinating committee for the NATS 50th national conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

During his years as executive director, the association has added major programming initiatives, new partnerships, expanded internationally, and adapted as necessary to the changing needs of NATS members and the broader voice community.

One of the organization’s most popular annual programs is National Student Auditions (NSA). As a longtime advocate for NSA, Henderson helped grow it into a unified, national-level program that now serves as many as 15,000 student singers annually. He successfully secured funding to establish the Hall Johnson Spirituals NSA category, which coincides with the NATS national conference in even years. Most recently, he was part of the efforts to expand NSA to include children and youth categories as well as commercial music categories.

Another one of Henderson’s first big accomplishments for the association was securing startup funding and leading the development of the National Musical Theatre Competition. Since 2012, more than 1,200 emerging performing artists have entered the competition and multiple past winners have gone on to be in major Broadway productions, including Aladdin, Dear Evan Hansen, On Your Feet, Bad Cinderella, Phantom of the Opera, Hello, Dolly!, Carousel and more. 

Similarly, he secured funds to make the Art Song Composition Award into annual competition as of 2016, and he coordinated the partnerships and funding to kick off the NATS Mentoring Program for Composers in 2020. He introduced and facilitated the inaugural NATS Science-Informed Voice Pedagogy Institute in 2023.

He conceived of and coordinated the “So You Want to Sing” book series, partnering with Rowman & Littlefield, to release the first book in 2014. The success of the 20-volume SYWTS series helped lay the groundwork for the launch of the NATS Book Series in 2022 with R&L, which has since been acquired by Bloomsbury in 2024.

Henderson’s leadership during the pandemic played an important role in helping NATS and the voice community navigate an uncertain period. He assembled a coalition of partners, coordinated webinars, communication efforts, and training events with medical experts and researchers to directly help members pivot their teaching and performances as guided by expert advice and validated data. Through his direction, NATS produced a successful virtual national conference in 2020.

NATS has accomplished many additional achievements under Henderson’s leadership, highlights include:

• Expanded staff to better support membership, including hiring the organization’s first director of development
• Selected ExWare as the association’s database management system, now in its third generation of the website
• Attained record attendance at multiple national conference events
• Oversaw the organization’s first strategic planning process
• Facilitated the merger of the NATS Foundation with NATS, Inc. in 2022
• Led the transition to a fully remote work environment and the sale of the office building
• Strengthened alliances with partner organizations, such as Music Teachers National Association and National Opera Association, through joint events
• Expanded the association’s international presence through the formation of an International Region and chapters in areas previously underserved
• Secured multiple major gifts in support of NATS programs and initiatives

For his “outstanding contributions to the field of voice,” Henderson received the VERA (Voice Education Research Awareness) Award from The Voice Foundation board in 2022. That same year, he was honored with the first-ever NATS IMPACT Award during the association’s national conference in Chicago. A tribute video and IMPACT Award Fund were established to recognize his years of service.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve this remarkable community,” Henderson said. “I’ve always said I joined NATS for the people and stayed because of the people. This means I’ve had the privilege to serve as the executive director during the tenures of 10 NATS presidents! I’m reminded daily of the strength of this association through interactions with our members, our leaders, our administrative staff, and all of our collaborative partners. I’m so proud of all we’ve accomplished together and genuinely happy to know the organization is in a position to flourish for many years to come.”

In addition to his work with NATS, Henderson has been a professor of music for two decades at Georgia Southern University, where he teaches voice. He also has served as the department chair at Georgia Southern and at Austin Peay State University, where he taught from 1994 to 2005. Prior to that, he taught at Oklahoma Baptist University from 1992 to 1994. As a baritone soloist, Henderson has appeared in concert, opera, and oratorio across the country. A district winner and regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera auditions, Henderson was winner of the 1995 National Federation of Music Clubs Artist Awards. He also was a regional finalist in the NATS Artist Awards (NATSAA) competition.

A search for a successor is underway. NATS will share additional reflections and celebration of Henderson’s service to the association in the months ahead.

“On behalf of all of us at NATS, we’re deeply grateful for Allen’s lasting contributions and commitment to transforming lives through the power of singing,” Davis-Hazell said.