Natalie Nicolas

Background

About Natalie Nicolas

Sydney composer, scholarship PhD candidate, and music educator Natalie Nicolas has her Masters degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Nicolas’ music is emotionally driven, as she aims to evoke calm and/or catharsis through her writing in line with her doctoral studies. Nicolas is a tutor/lecturer/UoS Coordinator at said university, and the Composer in Residence at Loreto Normanhurst. She also teaches composition at the prestigious Conservatorium High School. Nicolas has written for the Goldner SQ, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, the Australian String Quartet, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and others. In 2020, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra commissioned Nicolas, and she won the Harris Endowment for Medical Humanities Harris Award for her PhD work with music and healthcare. Nicolas also won the Flinders SQ Composition Competition in 2017 and 2019, and their ‘All That We Are’ residency. In February 2021, the Southern Cross Soloists and Slava Grigoryan commissioned/premiered a new work of Nicolas’ at QPAC to their largest audience in 26 years. Other projects for 2020/21 included a collaboration with the Australian Ballet with Orchestra Victoria, and an album “The Shift” with award-winning guitarist Matt Withers thanks to a generous commission by the ABC. Nicolas was also a selected composer at the prestigious Connecticut Summerfest, and attended their festival in June 2021. Nicolas was a winner of the MSO Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program 2021, and “Union” was premiered at Hamer Hall in January 2022. She was commissioned by the Charles Perkins Centre and wrote/produced a highly acclaimed immersive string orchestra work with Ensemble Apex for their 10th anniversary and to inaugurate her new research node at the CPC “Health and Creativity”. In Nov’ ’22 she was again a featured artist on ABC Classic’s Aus Music Month where she appeared on several interviews with Russell Torrance. Nicolas will also be releasing a new album with the Hush Foundation and award-winning guitarist Matt Withers in 2023. In November ‘23, the Omega Ensemble will premiere a new work of Nicolas’ at the iconic Sydney Opera House.(Current as of March 2023)