Born in Liverpool, Nicholas was a chorister at the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral before studying Modern Languages at Cambridge and a postgraduate course in voice at the RAM in London, where he was recently appointed Associate.
He has since been in constant demand both in the UK and further afield in a wide range of concert, recital and opera engagements.
He has sung at many of the world’s great opera houses and festivals: New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms and at Boston Symphony Hall.
Nicholas has particularly enjoyed prolonged collaborations with conductors like Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Jordi Savall, John Butt OBE, Lars-Ulrik Mortensen, Paul McCreesh, Richard Tognetti and Laurence Cummings and ensembles including the BBC Philharmonic, OAE, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen and Britten Sinfonia.
He is known for his performances of the Baroque repertoire, including recent noteworthy appearances as Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion at the Royal Albert Hall, Schütz at Edimburgh International Festival, Vespers by Monteverdi in the United States and Europe, the Christmas Oratorio with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Bach’s St Mathew Passion live on BBC Radio on Good Friday. He is usually a guest at the Wigmore Hall, where he has sung the music of Purcell, Stephen Hough, Schubert, among others, plus the complete Britten Canticles (to mark the hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth).
Beyond the Baroque repertoire, Nicholas recently recorded Piazzolla’s notable "tango operita" María de Buenos Aires with McFall Chamber and Victor Villena, to critical acclaim. Tavener with BBCNOW, Haydn with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Britten with OSPA in Spain, Beethoven 9th Symphony with BBCSO. He has also recorded Petrarch’s Sonnets by Gavin Bryars for Delphian.
His recordings include a Gramophone award-winning Messiah, Bach’s Passions and the Christmas Oratorio in Linn; Easter Oratorio and Actus Tragicus in SDG, as well as a DVD of Monteverdi’s Vespers at the Palace of Versailles, Rameau Hippolyte et Aricie at Paris Opéra and L'Incoronazione di Poppea with Emmanuelle Haïm.
Highlights this season include concerts with Sir Mark Elder and Hallé, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli, and co-conducting St. Matthew Passion.