Nic has been at the forefront of the contemporary music scene for over thirty years and was the founder and violist of the Internationally acclaimed Smith Quartet. The group pioneered the development of the string quartet genre commissioning over 200 new works, collaborating with and such artists as Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, Graham Fitkin, Steve Martland, Michael Daugherty, Steven Mackey, John Lord, Jarvis Cocker, Stephen Montague, Howard Skempton, Django Bates and choreographers Siobhan Davies and Shobana Jeyasingh. They have performed in many of the world’s most prestigious festivals including La Biennale di Venezia, Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Huddersfield Festivals in the UK and New York’s Bang on a Can Festival. They have recorded albums for BMG, Sony, Decca and Signum with whom they released bestselling albums of music by Steve Reich and Philip Glass the latter being describe by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the ten most important CDs of contemporary music”. They were finalist in the Prudential Awards for the Arts and were featured in two BBC documentaries, Classic Quartets at the BBC and Holocaust; A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz performing Steve Reich’s Different Trains the film winning a Grammy and a BAFTA.
In more recent years Nic’s pioneering and creative spirit has seen him create a new repertoire for the electric viola an instrument he believes has an exciting future in the ever-developing world of classical music. His stunning transcriptions of Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint and Terry Riley’s Dorian Reeds feature on his new album Multiple, released on the Orchid Classics label and have not only received critical acclaim from audiences around the world but from the composers themselves “the idea that Electric Counterpoint would be bowed had never occurred to me. I want to thank Nic for a beautiful surprise. I was moved to tears.” Steve Reich, “I listened to your recording and it sounds so beautiful! It is a really satisfying version of the piece. Congratulations!” Terry Riley.
Other transcriptions included Thomas Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in Alium presented for performance as an interactive Installation of forty loud-speakers within which the audience travels. The installation was developed and realised in collaboration with sound designer John-Marc Gowans and was premiered at the Sounds Festival in Aberdeen. There are plans for a second album which will feature new commissions, including Colin Riley’s Fallen Angel a dramatic work for e viola and electronics, Dominic Murcott’s haunting Black Earth, and Hollie Harding’s interactive, immersive work Melting, Shifting, Liquid World which explores the theme of climate change and ocean pollution. Written for e viola, (audience worn) bone conduction headphones, electronics and string orchestra the work was premiered in 2019 at the National Maritime Museum in London.
For the last two years Nic was featured artist at the First Light Festival in Suffolk appearing as both conductor and soloist in his concert production Beyond Our World featuring George Morton’s stunning chamber arrangement of Holst’s The Planets, Eliana Echeverry’s The Lost Planet for e viola and ensemble and his own transcription of Terry Riley’s Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector for solo e. viola. This year he collaborated with composer Alex Groves’ to create (led by the heart) my feet will follow a sonic exploration of landscapes both real and imagined for solo e.viola premiered on the beach at dawn.
Nic is also Head of Strings at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance where he leads one of the most dynamic faculties in Europe. As well as his administrative educational and managerial responsibilities he conducts several of the college orchestras including the Trinity Laban String Ensemble with whom he has toured throughout Europe collaborating with many soloists including Dmitri Ashkenazy, Darko Brlek, Massimo Mercelli, Rivka Golani, Mathew Trusler, William Howard, actor Edward Fox, jazz pianist Uri Caine and saxophonist Julian Argüelles with whom he and the ensemble recorded the album As above so below. Nic has also commissioned new work for the group from composers such as Paval Novak, David Matthews, Graham Fitkin, Joseph Phibbs and Douglas Finch.
Nic’s reimagining of works from the classical cannon have won him much praise and together with acclaimed theatre director Anna Morrisey created staged productions of both of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in his productionA Change of Season (which juxtaposed Vivaldi’s seminal work with Harding’s Melting, Shifting, Liquid World, to illustrate and contrast the seasons as they should be versus as they might become if we don’t take action) andJohn Tavener’s Protecting Veil which featured the celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch as soloist. Both productions toured successfully throughout the UK to much acclaim and included performances at the Latitude Festival and the National Maritime Museum and will be featured in this year’s Spitalfields Festival. Nic was Principal Guest conductor of the English Sinfonia and Music director of the Karl Jenkins Ensemble. He was also co-artistic director of both the Greenwich International String Quartet Festival and the Isleworth Festival and in 2018 was awarded title of Professor in recognition of his creative work and contribution to music performance and education.
