Natalie Nicolas

Biography

Sydney performer, PhD candidate, composer and music educator Natalie has completed her Master in Music (Composition) degree under scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Via the National Women Composer’s Development Program 2016-2018, she wrote for renowned percussionist Claire Edwardes, the Goldner String Quartet, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the Muses Trio, flautist of the CSO Virginia Taylor, harpist of the CSO Alice Giles, cellist Georg Pedersen, principle violist of the TSO Stefanie Farrands, and many others.

In 2013 Natalie wrote for the Australian String Quartet under the guidance of Andrew Ford, as a winner of the National Composers Forum. She was also commissioned by the Hush Foundation in 2017-2018, writing for the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the annual Hush CD alongside former/current mentors Paul Stanhope and Matthew Hindson. Her piece “Won’t Let You Down” was premiered at City Recital Hall, Sydney and Melbourne Recital Centre in September 2018. In December 2017, two of her latest string quartet pieces were world premiered by the Flinders String Quartet in Melbourne as a winner of the Flinders Quartet Composition Competition. Natalie was a selected composer at the 2018 National Gondwana School, and in March 2018, the Muses Trio premiered her piece “Afflatus” in multiple concerts in an Australian east coast International Women’s Day tour.

Together with her writing, Natalie is a is a casual tutor & lecturer at Sydney Conservatorium of Music (USyd), a lecturer for HSC composition, is a contracted composer for international advertising campaigns, owns/runs a piano tuition school, and sings and performs in bands and duos around Sydney.

Composer website: http://www.natalienicolas.com.au/

Featured Works

The Rose that Wept, for String Quartet.

Written originally for the Goldner String Quartet, this piece explores the innocence of childhood and the themes that defined them, journeying us back to a place of repose, naivety and simplistic, youthful content.

– Natalie Nicolas

Featured in Harmonic Waves (May 2019).