Overview
- Piano and Piano Accompaniment Tutor and Vocal Coach
- Birmingham Conservatoire
- Faculty of Performance, Media & English
- Email: nicholls234@btinternet.com
- Phone: c/o +44 (0)121 331 6903
Areas of expertise
- Piano technique, performance and pedagogy
- Performance practice 18th - 20th centuries
- Song interpretation
- Languages: French, German, Russian
Biography
Simon Nicholls studied at Royal College of Music with John Barstow and Kendall Taylor, winning many awards and prizes, and attended masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda in Germany. For ten years he taught the piano at the Yehudi Menuhin School, working with Louis Kentner and Vlado Perlemuter, and for twenty years was a professor at Royal College of Music, London. He now teaches piano, accompaniment and song interpretation at the Conservatoire. He has often been a visiting artist at Dartington International Summer School, where he has taught piano, chamber music and improvisation and given many recitals.
Simon performs professionally as a soloist and collaborative pianist. He frequently gives concerts at London’s major recital venues and has toured and broadcast extensively on radio and television in Britain and abroad. He has performed in New York’s Lincoln Center, in New England and in the South West of the USA and he has also played throughout Europe, including the Czech Republic (Prague Spring Festival), Eire, France, Germany, Greece and Holland, and in India and Africa. He has recorded for Chandos Records and Carlton Classics and his compositions are published by Faber Music.
He has written for many musical journals and has conducted extensive research on the life, music and thought of Alexander Skryabin; this has involved several visits to Russia, seeking out original materials and discussing the music with pianists, composers and musicologists. In 2007 he gave a lecture and masterclass at the State Skryabin Museum, Moscow; he has also lectured in London and Birmingham. Articles to be published in America, Russia and Korea are currently in preparation.