Nicolas Hodges (born 1970 in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
. He specializes in avant garde music. He was educated at
Christ Church Cathedral SchoolChrist Church Cathedral School is a Prep and Pre-Prep, fee-paying boarding and day school for approximately 140 pupils based in Oxford, England. Steeped in music and history, the School was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 to provide choristers for Christ Church Cathedral and College. Now a Church of...
, Oxford,
Winchester CollegeWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
, and the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
.
Hodges studied the piano with Robert Bottone at Winchester, and subsequently with
Susan BradshawSusan Bradshaw was a British pianist, teacher and writer. She was mainly associated with contemporary music, and especially with the work of Pierre Boulez, several of whose writings she translated...
and
Sulamita AronovskySulamita Aronovsky, born in Lithuania, is a classical pianist and piano teacher who spent her formative years in Russia and her teachers include Lev Barenboim, Abram Schatzkes, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser and later Grigory Ginsburg upon Goldenweiser's death. In 1991, She has founded the...
; he studied composition with
Michael Finnissy-Biography:Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London. He was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1965-68, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens and the Webern disciple Humphrey Searle, and piano with Edwin Benbow....
and
Robin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
, but now concentrates on performing and teaching.
Many composers have written works for Hodges to perform, notably
Elliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
(Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra, 2003),
Salvatore SciarrinoSalvatore Sciarrino is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:In his youth, Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a...
,
James ClarkeJames Clarke is an English composer sometimes associated with the New Complexity school.-Education:According to fellow English composer and music scholar Christopher Fox, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "After studying at Southampton University and City University, London,...
,
Michael Finnissy-Biography:Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London. He was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1965-68, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens and the Webern disciple Humphrey Searle, and piano with Edwin Benbow....
, and
Konrad BoehmerKonrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...
.
Hodges has recorded music by many contemporary and recent composers.
Nicolas Hodges (born 1970 in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
and
composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
. He specializes in avant garde music. He was educated at
Christ Church Cathedral SchoolChrist Church Cathedral School is a Prep and Pre-Prep, fee-paying boarding and day school for approximately 140 pupils based in Oxford, England. Steeped in music and history, the School was founded by Henry VIII in 1546 to provide choristers for Christ Church Cathedral and College. Now a Church of...
, Oxford,
Winchester CollegeWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
, and the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
.
Hodges studied the piano with Robert Bottone at Winchester, and subsequently with
Susan BradshawSusan Bradshaw was a British pianist, teacher and writer. She was mainly associated with contemporary music, and especially with the work of Pierre Boulez, several of whose writings she translated...
and
Sulamita AronovskySulamita Aronovsky, born in Lithuania, is a classical pianist and piano teacher who spent her formative years in Russia and her teachers include Lev Barenboim, Abram Schatzkes, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser and later Grigory Ginsburg upon Goldenweiser's death. In 1991, She has founded the...
; he studied composition with
Michael Finnissy-Biography:Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London. He was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1965-68, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens and the Webern disciple Humphrey Searle, and piano with Edwin Benbow....
and
Robin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
, but now concentrates on performing and teaching.
Many composers have written works for Hodges to perform, notably
Elliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
(Dialogues for Piano and Orchestra, 2003),
Salvatore SciarrinoSalvatore Sciarrino is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:In his youth, Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a...
,
James ClarkeJames Clarke is an English composer sometimes associated with the New Complexity school.-Education:According to fellow English composer and music scholar Christopher Fox, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "After studying at Southampton University and City University, London,...
,
Michael Finnissy-Biography:Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London. He was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1965-68, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens and the Webern disciple Humphrey Searle, and piano with Edwin Benbow....
, and
Konrad BoehmerKonrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...
.
Hodges has recorded music by many contemporary and recent composers. His first CD was of the complete piano works of
Bill HopkinsG.W. Hopkins was a British composer, pianist and music critic.Hopkins was born in Prestbury, Cheshire and educated at Rossall School, Lancashire; his mother was educationally subnormal and unable to look after him, and he was raised by aunts...
, and he has also recorded music by Adams,
Finnissy-Biography:Finnissy was born in Tulse Hill, London. He was a foundation scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1965-68, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens and the Webern disciple Humphrey Searle, and piano with Edwin Benbow....
,
BirtwistleSir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.- Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington in Lancashire and in 1952 entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in Manchester on a clarinet scholarship...
,
ConnollyJustin Connolly is a British composer and teacher.He was educated at Westminster School, and then briefly studied law at the Middle Temple before deciding on a career in music...
,
FerneyhoughBrian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer of contemporary classical music. His complex, multi-layered music is always distinctive when performed...
, Carter,
BoehmerKonrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...
, and many others.
Since April 2005 Hodges has been Professor of Piano at the
Musikhochschule, Stuttgart. He is married to the singer Kirsten Blaise, and they have a son and a daughter.
External links