[2] McGuinness is the vocalist for the trio Ensemble for These Times, alongside pianist Dale Tsang and cellist Anne Lerner-Wright.

[5] In 2018 McGuinness's album The Hungarians: from Rozsa to Justus[10] received the gold medal from the Global Music Awards.

[11] In 2019, the ensemble received the second place for Chamber Music Performance by The American Prize,[12] as well as being finalists for their Ernst Bacon Memorial Award.

[14] Of the recording, The Whole Note wrote that, “The Ensemble’s performance is both poised and haunting, and is raised to a rarefied realm by lustrous and soaring, songful recitatives executed by the inimitable Nanette McGuinness.”[15] The journal Textura also stated that McGuinness “gives powerful voice to Celan's texts”.

[18] McGuinness is also a translator, having translated about sixty published books and graphic novels from French, Italian, German, and Spanish into English for children[19] and adults,[20] including the Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novel series with Papercutz and California Dreamin': Cass Elliott Before the Mamas & the Papas with First Second Books,[21][2][22] Luisa: Now and Then,[23] A House Without Windows,[24] and For Justice: The Serge and Beate Klarsfeld Story.