John Adams, J.S. Bach, Jeff Beck, Luciano Berio, Julian Bream, Leo Brouwer, Miles Davis, Claude Debussy, Oscar Ghiglia, Glenn Gould, Jimi Hendrix, Kronos Quartet, Led Zeppelin, Pat Metheny, Steve Reich, Andres Segovia, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Sibelius, Toru Takemitsu, Edward Van Halen, Benjamin Verdery, Anton Webern, Kazuhito Yamashita, Yes...
Sounds Like
"a display of stunning technical skill and unfailing musicality"
- John Duarte, GRAMOPHONE
"remarkable... breathtaking... superb... a fully enlightened musician of our time"
- Paul Fowles, CLASSICAL GUITAR
"innovative and superb"
- Francois Nicolas, GUITARE CLASSIQUE
"An artist with eclectic tastes and a contemplative bent... extraordinary... powerful"
- Joan Reinthaler, THE WASHINGTON POST
"From J.S. Bach to Elliott Carter Nicolella proved to be a superb technician. He has facility that is clear-headed and quick. He has as much purpose in music of the 20th or 21st century, as he does with music of the 18th."
- R.M. Campbell, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Michael Nicolella is recognized as one of America's most innovative classical guitar virtuosos. As a concert artist, Michael has performed throughout North America and Europe as solo recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestra. He has received wide critical acclaim for his performances, recordings and compositions. Classical Guitar magazine recently referred to him as “one of the contemporary guitar’s most gifted stars”; while the Washington Post stated “Since the passing of Andres Segovia the guitar world has needed an advocate... perhaps Michael Nicolella is that person.”
A uniquely eclectic and versatile artist, Michael blurs the lines between musical styles and disciplines. He is part of a growing trend in classical music to revitalize the role of the composer/performer. As a concert artist he frequently programs his own works for guitar in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. His latest work, "Ten Years Passed," for electric guitar and orchestra was premiered in Spring 2007 by the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. Known for his creative programming, he has introduced electric guitar into his "classical" programs and extended the repertoire and audience of his instrument not only with his own compositions and transcriptions, but also by premiering and commissioning works by some of today's most exciting emerging composers including John Fitz Rogers, Christopher DeLaurenti, Anthony Gatto, Tom Baker, Apostolos Paraskevas and Joshua Kohl.
His most recent recording, "Shard," features his composition for classical guitar and orchestra, "Guitar Concerto," performed with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Anthony Spain, along with music for classical and electric guitar by Reich, Carter, ter Veldhuis, DeLaurenti, Mesler and Kohl. The disc was described in a recent issue of Frets magazine as “an exciting textbook on how to honor the classical tradition and kick it in the ass at the same time.”
Hi, and thanks for the friendship! The Danish composer Per Nørgård's music has been much on my mind the past few years. Arguably the most important now living Scandinavian composer also has a remarkable output for the guitar. I spent a couple of years working with the composer on this repertoire, spanning from 1973 to 2000, in order to embrace the emerging performance practice associated with his work.
I have just uploaded 10 new tracks, all taken from "Tales From the North", my double CD box with the complete guitar works of Danish composer Per Nørgård. Also, in my latest blog you will find recent reviews of this release.
For further reading about the composer, this is an excellent website, with articles by a series of scholars and performers that have dedicated much study to his work:
Hi Michael. Glad you had a good time in Victoria and that you liked my quartet piece. Don't hesitate to get in touch or visit my main web site to learn more about my work. It would be great to collaborate on a future project, maybe with electric/classical mix of some sort?
