LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 25, 2026) — When Mary Joy Nelson, D.M.A., was a young girl growing up in Saskatchewan, Canada, she would look out her window in the afternoons after school and watch kids playing street hockey and roller blading while she was inside practicing piano and singing. Music and the arts have been her joy and her passion since a very early age, so she was right where she wanted to be.
Nelson’s love of music put her on a path that would one day lead her far away from her tiny prairie province town in Canada to the University of Kentucky, where she first earned a master’s degree in 2006, then a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2022 and began the adventure of a lifetime working with children who shared the same passion she had for music and the arts.
Growing up, musical performance was a way of life for Nelson. Her father was a pastor and a trumpet player, and her mother and grandmother were music teachers. As a child, she recalls standing on a chair between her parents singing a melody as her father sang tenor and her mother sang alto. As the family grew, so did the number of chairs between her parents and soon they were singing in five parts.
“We had a musical family like the Von Trapps. We sang together at music festivals, and we did little tours and sang for churches and community centers around our area,” Nelson said.
“I was 13 years old when I started to study opera. My parents drove me an hour and a half every other week to study with a teacher, Lisa Hornung, who had a wonderful background in opera training, and I really loved it.”
When Nelson was in the 12th grade, her family moved from her small town to Saskatoon, the largest city in Saskatchewan. She attended a performing arts school there for one year, where she participated in her first musical theater production. She played in the band, sang in the choir and, for the first time, took an acting class.
“Acting for a grade was unheard of for me and I thought ‘this is it, I love this,’” she said.
For college, Nelson majored in music education, earning her undergraduate degree in 2001 at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. Once she embarked on a teaching career, it did not take long to come to the startling realization that half her vocal music and acting class students did not want to be there.
“I wanted to work with the kids who are passionate about the arts and really want to do this because this is always what lit me up,” Nelson said. “It always felt like such a privilege for me to perform and I would take any opportunity that I was afforded to participate and have the best time.”
Nelson stepped away from music education and moved to North Battleford, where Hornung, her opera coach, lived. She continued lessons with Hornung, and 1 1/2 years later, Hornung told Nelson she needed to spread her wings and pursue her master’s degree because she was too good of a singer to stay put.
“My teacher had gone to Italy to study an opera program, and she met Dr. Everett McCorvey, director of Opera Theatre and professor in the UK College of Fine Arts. She had been going down to Kentucky to have lessons with him, and she said to me, ‘Why don’t you have some lessons with Dr. McCorvey and see how you feel about it,’” Nelson said. “So, I went to Kentucky and met up with UK opera student Angela Leson, who was from North Battleford in Saskatchewan. I got to stay with her and we had a lot of conversations about what UK and studying with Dr. McCorvey was like. I loved my lessons with Dr. McCorvey, and I felt like I learned and grew so much.”
Nelson knew UK was a perfect fit for her, but it almost didn’t happen. Although UK offered her a half-scholarship, she didn’t think she could make it work financially. Another school in Canada offered her a full scholarship so she felt she had to go with her second choice. Still, McCorvey was her favorite, and UK was really where she wanted to be, but coming from a humble background, she had to be realistic.
Much like a providential twist in a Broadway play, within a week UK offered Nelson a full scholarship. This unexpected stroke of good fortune was life changing.
“I got to be in all these operas. I was in ‘The Little Prince,’ and they had a children’s chorus. I always talked about working with children; I don’t think I ever stopped talking about working with children,” Nelson said. “I think Dr. McCorvey had that on his radar, especially when he learned I had an education background. So, I got to help direct the children’s chorus and that was the first thing I did with children at the opera theater.”
“Around 2007, I asked Dr. McCorvey why we didn’t have any preparatory programs for children? Why aren’t we getting kids interested in opera and theater young here at the university to recruit them? So, one day he said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
That was the birth of “Broadway Bound,” two summer camps which Nelson organized and taught vocals for. Nelson and McCorvey partnered with Nan McSwain, a vocal coach in the UK College of Fine Arts, and Alberta Labrillazo, a School for the Creative and Performing Arts teacher who taught acting. “Broadway Bound” was a tremendous success and in 2009 Nelson proposed they do something year-round.
“From that, the Academy for Creative Excellence Preparatory Program was born and that was under opera theater as well. In those years from 2007 to 2016, Dr. McCorvey gave me incredible opportunities to work with children,” Nelson said. “I conducted a children’s chorus that sang for Laura Bush when she was in town for a literacy event and for former President Bill Clinton when he attended the Lexington Sight and Hearing Event.
Nelson went on to become the Youth Corps director for the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington. Performances included 234 students singing eight songs in the opening ceremonies, including a song with Kentucky native and award-winning country music singer Wynonna Judd.
“The kids were all dressed in white like little angels,” Nelson said with tears of pride. “I have so many happy memories of that experience.”
Tears quickly turned to laughter as she described how hot it was that summer.
“We had to ply them with water to keep them hydrated,” Nelson said. “The first number of the opening ceremonies, they would trot around the arena in horseheads especially made for them by Susan Wigglesworth, costume designer for UK Opera Theatre.”
Nelson’s memories are a wealth of powerful stories that have ignited in children a love for the arts. Those stories have helped shape them into the people they are today. Some of her former students, now adults, are using their talents in big ways.
Patrick Garr won the outstanding male performer in a Junior Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, as a young teen in Nelson’s UK program. He went on to perform in the Broadway musical adaptation of “Mean Girls” as well as on the national tour of “Hamilton.”
Another Academy for Creative Excellence student, Brooklyn Shuck, moved to New York as a young student and went on to perform on Broadway as Kate in “Annie” and as the title role in “Matilda.” She currently has about 10 Broadway credits and several television and film credits.
Audrey Bennett originated the role of young Anna in the Broadway production of “Frozen.” Prior to that she was on tour with “The Sound of Music” as Gretl and Broadway’s short run of “Amelie” with Phillipa Soo.
These are but a sampling of youth Nelson has trained and nurtured to develop their talent. Since she first came to Kentucky to further her education, one door of opportunity after another opened and her career has skyrocketed, not by chance but from God-given talent and her strong desire to share a passion for music and the arts with children.
Nelson is the founding executive director for InnOVATION Arts Academy where she serves as administrator, producer, director and music director. She has been teaching youth and children in the performing arts for more than 20 years.
“The best part of my job working with young performers has been watching how the arts create incredible community,” Nelson said. “It nurtures leadership, teamwork, responsibility, creativity and problem solving. I have had the privilege of watching students grow up from tiny little 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds who go on to incredible feats as arts supporters and arts contributors.
“I have students who work at Disney parks and sing on stage. I have students on Broadway, but I also have students who have gone into the legal profession, who are teachers, who are arts administrators, so it’s really rewarding to see how the arts helped them grow into adults to creatively contribute to their community and be people who are mindful and empathetic and really want to contribute to the greater good of the world they live in.”
This year, InnOVATION Arts Academy celebrates 10 years of musical theater education and youth productions. The academy will have a celebratory banquet March 29, and will present its spring production, “Newsies,” at Singletary Center for the Arts. Tickets area available at innovationarts.org.