Nicholas Newland   director




Nicholas Newland made his professional debut as a conductor at the Cadogan Hall, London in January 2007 and has since appeared around the UK and Europe in concert venues and theatres conducting opera and chamber music of the eighteenth century.  Having originally studied the tuba at Trinity College of Music, he was awarded a distinction for his MA in Historical Musicology at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2011. He is currently researching for a PhD at Goldsmiths, examining commerce in Children's talent on the London stage in the eighteenth century.

Alongside his research, Nicholas is an active performer. With The Amadè Players, and its predecessor, Situation Opera, he has directed performances of all Mozart's concerti, as well as many symphonies and the operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Nicholas is Artistic Director of GoldMusNet, the widening participation music scheme at Goldsmiths, where he is also a Visiting Tutor and will be teaching courses in Western Art Music and Handel in London in the 2013 Academic year.  The collaboration in music education between Goldsmiths and The Amadè Players will continue throughout the 2012-2013 Concert Season, with Monteverdi's groundbreaking l'Orfeo under Nicholas' baton in February 2013 and a performance of a rarely heard work written by an eleven-year-old Mozart to come later in the year. He is also dedicated to education on a personal level - Nicholas is pleased to be supporting Mentored Musician Agnes Chandler with the loan of a Keavy-Vanryne natural trumpet and cornett by Christopher Monk.

The world of music we inhabit often requires a more practical, hands-on approach than our audiences may imagine. Nicholas is an experienced arranger and editor, and has prepared several scholarly editions of previously unavailable works for performance by The Amadè Players, including Wanhal's Concerto for Contrabass and Symphony in A minor, Johann Roman's Svenska Mässen and Drottningholmsmusiken, and Johan Agrell's Concerto for Oboe.  The latter four works all receive their UK premieres with The Amadè Players in 2012, and Nicholas has also directed or organised several other important premieres - the first London performances of Vivaldi's Violin Sonatas RV81 and RV815 (by kind permission of Michael Talbot, The Gerald Coke Handel Collection and publishers Ricordi for permission to perform the editions before publication) and the second performance in the UK of Vivaldi's Concerto for Traverso 'Il Gran Mogol', RV431a.

Nicholas made an additional debut in May 2012, directing Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks at The Foundling Museum - whilst also playing timpani!


 

 

 
Current Research Interests:

18th Century Children's Performance in London: Handel's Children and The Foundling Hospital

Mozart at the Pleasure Gardens

Swedish baroque music in London, at the Pleasure Gardens and at home.