Born
in Nottingham, Nicholas read Commerce at the University of Birmingham
and then went on to study post-graduate at the Royal Northern College
of Music with Jeffrey Lawton and Barbara Robotham. Awards at the RNCM
included the William McLeod Johnstone Prize for male singers, a D'Oyly
Carte Charitable Trust award, the Kate Smape award, and a major scholarship
from the Peter Moores Foundation.
Operatic
roles include: Mouse, Alice in Wonderland, by W. Josephs, a
world premiere for Harrogate International Festival; the title role
in La Clemenza di Tito for Birmingham University Festival Opera;
Tamino, Die Zauberflöte, Jack, Into the Woods,
and Fenton, Falstaff, all for the RNCM; Eufemio di Siracusa,
Gli Equivoci, for Musica nel Chiostro at Batignano; First Prisoner,
Fidelio, for Birmingham Opera Company - also broadcast live
on BBC Radio 4. Other roles studied include: Idomeneo, Ramiro, La
Cenerentola; Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni; Arturo, La Straniera;
and Percy, Anna Bolena.
He
has participated in masterclasses with Robin Bowman, Geoffrey Shovelton
(G&S), Chris Honer (Manchester Library Theatre) and Sarah Walker
at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio.
Nicholas
joined the Glyndebourne Chorus in 2000, where he covered Snout, A
Midsummer Night's Dream, and made his Glyndebourne debut singing
First Prisoner, Fidelio, at the Théatrè du Châtelet,
Paris, in February 2002. During this year's festival, he sang Rudolph,
Weber's Euryanthe, including a performance at the Royal Albert
Hall for the BBC Proms, and BBC Radio 3; covered the title role in
Albert Herring, and was the recent recipient of the Erich Vietheer
Memorial Award.
His
oratorio repertoire includes: Messiah and O Praise the Lord,
Handel; Requiem and Vespers, Mozart; B Minor Mass
and Magnificat, J.S. Bach; St. Paul, Mendelssohn; Magnificat,
Albinoni; Dixit Dominus, Scarlatti; Creation, Haydn;
St. Cecilia Mass, Gounod; A Child of our Time, Tippett;
St. Nicholas, Britten; and Mass in E Flat, Schubert.
Future engagements include Messiah, Beethoven's Mass in
C, Mozart's Coronation Mass, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio.
Nicholas's NOS studies were generously supported by the RVW Trust, the Peter Moores Foundation,
the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and SME Solutions.
