about

Churchill Fellow Nicole Canham works in mainstream classical performance specialising in chamber music, and collaborates with a range of artists from outside the world of music – theatre, film, photography, visual art and dance – exploring connections between artists and audiences.  Recent work has included concerts with the quartet Clarity, participation in Chamber Made Opera’s performance and recording of Helen Gifford’s Exile, launched as an i-pad application, and residencies with new media artist Sarah Kaur at Punctum Live Arts, Victoria and the Mexican National Centre for New Music and Sonic Arts, and dancer/choreographer Nerida Matthaei at the Firkin Crane, Ireland.  Engagements in the last 12 months have included concerts with Claude Delangle for Henri Selmer, Paris and the 22nd European University of the Saxophone in Gap, France, performances at the UNAM Esceula Nacional de Musica Clarinet Festival, the 12 Nights Festival of electro-acoustic music, Miami, the Visiones Sonoras Festival, Mexico and the Australian Clarinet and Saxophone Festival.  Nicole is currently engaged in a major commissioning project of new works for tarogato and electronics, and in the last 12 months has premiered 10 new works in concerts in Australia, France, Mexico and the USA.  She is curating and performing in an international collaborative project called Hourglass, working with a team of Mexican and Australian composers, video and installation artists.  With the company Polyartistry she has just completed an experimental video opera project, Polyopera, in partnership with Opera Australia.

After completing a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance at the Australian National University School of Music, Nicole undertook post graduate study with renowned French clarinettist Philippe Cuper at the CNR de Versailles, obtaining her Prix de Perfectionnement and returning to Australia in 2003.  Specialising in chamber music performance and presentation, Nicole has performed at festivals around Australia, including The Castlemaine State Festival, Four Winds, The Camden Haven Festival, The Adelaide Fringe Festival, The Darwin Youth Festival and the National Folk Festival.  With the quartet Clarity, Nicole has performed internationally throughout Belgium, France and the UK, making their international debut at St-Martin-in-the-Fields.  Her diverse musical interests and commitment to expanding the audience for classical music in Australia have seen her work as a professional musician in the mainstream with orchestras including the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony and Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and also more widely in new music and improvisation.  She has performed in live broadcast performances for ABC Classic FM’s Sunday Live Program in Canberra and Melbourne.  Nicole’s discography includes recordings for The Anthology of Australian Music, and the Tall Poppies and Move labels.  She has been a Move Records artist since 2005.

Nicole has worked extensively with other artists to develop music-based hybrid performance works. This has included site specific performances, commissions and special programs for the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, The National Museum of Australia, The National Portrait Gallery, Old Parliament House, The Street Theatre (The Six Memos with Clarity and Looking for Mike Oldfield, both part of the Street’s Colliding Worlds Fusion series), The National Film and Sound Archive (Felix! Vintage Felix the Cat cartoons with live incidental music), the National Multicultural Festival and the Australian National Botanic Gardens (The Memory of Trees). 

Through her innovative and imaginative programming, Nicole achieved record results over the term of her appointment as Artistic Director of the Canberra International Music Festival(2005 – 2008) including a ten-fold increase in attendance over 4 years. The 2008 Festival featured eight world and 14 Australian premieres. Her commitment to providing quality arts experiences for young people was a major addition to the Festival, with her education program in 2008 providing concert experiences for 25% of ACT primary school children featuring music by living Australian composers. Other hallmarks of her term include imaginative and innovative site specific programs for the National Film and Sound Archive, The National Gallery of Australia and Old Parliament House. The 2007 Festival received an Australian Classical Music State Award for most outstanding contribution by an organisation, and the 2008 Festival was a national finalist in the Australian Classical Music Awards.

As a writer and commentator on music and the arts, Nicole has presented lectures and participated in forums at the International Clarinet Association Conference in Austin, Texas, for the composition departments of Florida International University, USA and the Conservatorio de las Rosas, Morelia, Mexico, Monash University, Melbourne, International Women’s Day at the National Library of Australia, and had articles published in national industry journals including a Platform Paper, Democracy versus Creativity in Australian Classical Music published by Currency House Press, the Australian Music Centre’s magazine, Resonate, Australian Clarinet and Saxophone and other music education publications. In 2007 and 2008 Nicole was a regular weekly panellist on local ABC Radio, 666 ABC Canberra, on the Afternoon Show’s Key Note Speaker segment. Nicole is a doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland.