Paul 

Nicholson
Piano
  • Paul Nicholson …. is the rare performer whose sense of musicianship is fully equal to his admirable grasp of scholarship. His playing is rhythmically supple and nuanced without crossing the line into the lurch-and-stagger school of performance; his ornaments and improvised flourishes are imaginative yet always tasteful and insightful.
    Handel: The Eight Harpsichord Suites; Six Fugues or Voluntarys;
    Fugue in E; Fugue in F. Hyperion Records
  • Paul Nicholson plays all three instruments with the required alternation of grace and nimble virtuosity at some spanking tempi while the orchestra plays with joyful rhythmic élan and none of the mannered phrasing which infects some authentic instrument groups.
    Christopher Howell, MusicWeb International
    [Thomas Arne - Six Favourite Concertos]

A music graduate of York University, and greatly enriched by previous musical training at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, pianist Paul Nicholson has enjoyed a diverse musical career as an accompanist, chamber musician, soloist and director.

From early experience as coach and accompanist at the Britten-Pears School at Snape, and continuo playing at the Aldeburgh Festival, Paul became an increasingly eminent Early Keyboard specialist, in chamber partnerships with baroque violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch and ‘cellist Richard Tunicliffe (in ‘The Locatelli Trio’), the Viol Consort, Fretwork, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and many other leading period instrument ensembles. He has been Associate Musical Director of the London Handel and Tilford Bach Festivals, and his recordings for Hyperion have included Handel’s Organ Concertos (directed by Roy Goodman), and the Eight Harpsichord Suites of 1720. In BBC Radio 3’s last ‘Building a Library’ comparison of those Suites, Paul’s disc was the reviewer’s choice. In recent years he has returned increasingly to chamber music with piano – where he began.

Paul is also an Anglican Priest, and having served in North London parishes, he remains a Priest Vicar of Westminster Abbey and assists at churches in London and Bedfordshire – where he now lives.

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