Bio:

Zach Nicholas (b. 2005) is a composer, arranger, and french horn player born and raised in Kansas. He has written pieces for piano and brass quintet, as well as electronic music. He is currently attending the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, where he is pursuing a BMA in music composition under the instruction of Ingrid Stölzel. Here he serves as the secretary of the New Music Guild, and he regularly performs with the KU Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra.

Style:

Nicholas' style is ecclectic, taking inspiration from jazz, pop, and film music, as well as impressionism, Americanism, and modernist composers like Bartók, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev. Though certainly a tonal composer, Nicholas' music values dissonance, polytonality, and the use of octotonic and whole-tone scales. He frequently employs quartal and quintal harmonies and enjoys playing with fifth relationships.

Nicholas' concert music is impatient and spontaneous, taking the listener through many different motives and key areas, rarely letting things marinate before moving on to the next idea. His electronic music is more laid-back, drawing inspiration from minimalism and video game music and creating unique and exotic sound worlds for the listener to lose themself in.