composer
Nicholas Ng
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Dr Nicholas Ng is a composer, performer and full-time Research Fellow at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Interested in the healing properties of music, Nicholas seeks to marry the ancient and the modern through the use of acoustic and electronic sound.
A keen performer, Nicholas plays the erhu (Chinese ‘violin’) and is in the constant search for new performative contexts from contemporary dance to meditation circles. Nicholas has performed at ‘The Studio’, Sydney Opera House, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (Taipei) and Merkin Concert Hall (New York City). Nicholas periodically tours in William Yang’s Performing Lines production, China (2007-present), which has been invited to various festivals such as the KunstenFESTIALdesarts (Brussels), Melbourne International Arts Festival, the OzAsia Festival (Adelaide) and the Push Festival (Vancouver). Nicholas has appeared solo and in ensemble at the National Multicultural Festival (Canberra), Woodford Folk Festival (Woodford), Music by the Sea (Brisbane) and in 2009, at the Parliament of the World’s Religions with Dr Kim Cunio, Heather Lee and Tunji Beier. In the same year, Nicholas performed in Erik Griswold’s Clocked Out production, The States.
As a composer, Nicholas has received commissions to compose for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, Saitenwind, The Song Company, The Australian Voices, United Nations Association of Australia, Australian Choreographic Centre, Tugpindulayaw Theatre, Sydney-Asia Pacific Film Festival, the Art Gallery of NSW and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Published by Orpheus Music, his compositions have been broadcast on ABC Classic-FM and awarded prizes such as the 2005 Orpheus Publications Composition Prize. He is now developing a commission of three sacred compositions for St Stephen’s Cathedral.
A former lecturer at the School of Music, Australian National University, Nicholas completed his doctorate in composition/ethnomusicology in 2008. He has presented papers on his research topic (Australian Chinese sacred music in Sydney) at conferences including the 38th International Council of Traditional Music World Conference, University of Sheffield (2005) and the 3rd Asian Australian Identities Conference, Curtin University (2009) and is continues to research Chinese music in diaspora.
Nicholas’ music is often a sonic exploration of his Chinese roots whereby he draws from his research into secular and sacred music in and from China. In May 2010, he curated Encounters: Musical meetings between Australia and China www.griffith.edu.au/music/encounters, a four-day event involving leading artists and scholars from the two countries. Nicholas has since been involved in Queensland Conservatorium’s fast-developing SoundSpace project after completing a composition for The Australian Voices based on a Han Dynasty bronze mirror and the poetry of the late Neville Thomas Yeomans (Queensland poet). © 2011 by Nicholas Ng
Concerts with Chronology Arts