Biographie

Nick Omiccioli (b.1982) is composer, electric guitarist, and educator. Nick has been described as a “rising star” [The Kansas City Star] and a composer with “powerful ideas” that “expresses them confidently” [The Straits Times]. His music has been described as “ominous and enthralling” [The Latest Brighton] and displaying “a depth and density of sound” [KCMetropolis]. Nick’s music encompasses a diverse range of styles across multiple genres that originated from his experiences playing electric guitar in rock, metal, and jazz groups and early aspirations of wanting to be a graphic novel illustrator. His artistic background brings a singular craft to his work that is introspective, evocative, and imaginative. Nick turned his attention toward music when he heard Metallica’s eponymous album “The Black Album” for the first time.

Nick’s music has been performed in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Singapore, Thailand, China, Taiwan, New Zealand, and throughout the United States. He has composed for some of the leading ensembles of today such as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Nu Deco Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, The Berkeley Symphony, l’Orchestre de la francophonie, the Jasper String Quartet, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Paramirabo, and Third Angle Ensemble. Nick has received commissions by the Wellesley Composers Conference, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Shouse Institute at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, National Arts Centre in Canada, Le Domaine Forget, and Nu Deco Ensemble, among others. In addition to having been awarded many national and international honors, Nick has received residencies at Copland House, Willapa Bay AiR, and was a finalist for the Rome Prize.

As an electric guitarist, Nick specializes in rock, metal, classical, and jazz fusion styles. He has performed with orchestras, wind ensembles, rock bands, jazz combos, big bands, new music ensembles, and experimental improvisational groups. He made his debut as a soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2019 performing Bryce Dessner’s St. Carolyn by the Sea for two electric guitars and orchestra as well as works by Frank Zappa and arrangements of Daft Punk songs. In 2018, Nick performed with the classical comedy duo Igudesman and Joo alongside the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra for the conservatory’s Visiting Artist Series. Currently, Nick is recording an album of his own arrangements of works by Bach, Paganini, Ravel, and Debussy for electric guitar.

Nick holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (DMA, MM) and Heidelberg University (BM). His music is currently self-published and is distributed by Composers Edition (UK), Trev-co Varner Music (USA), and E.C. Schirmer Music Company (USA). Nick currently teaches guitar and is a coach for Rock Workshop at the Madison Music Foundry in Madison, Wisconsin. He has previously taught at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music at the National University of Singapore, University of Missouri-Kansas City—where he was a Preparing Future Faculty Fellow, and at the University of Central Missouri. When not composing, practicing, or teaching, Nick enjoys watching cartoons and reading comic books.