Philip Nicholls, Musical Director
In addition to his appointment as Musical Director of The Tudor Choristers, Philip holds a number of other positions. He is Director of Music at Christ Church South Yarra, General Editor of the Australian Hymn Book Company, and a member of the Music and Chaplaincy administration staff at Trinity College, University of Melbourne.
Philip received his early musical training as a boy chorister in the Choir of Christ Church Brunswick under Fr Paul Harvie. During this period he was a principal and children’s chorus member of the then Australian Opera and Victoria State Opera. Beginning undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, he worked with secular choirs, most notably Melbourne Voices (directed by his brother, Richard Nicholls) and the National Youth Choir of Australia. Having made his conducting debut with the Choir of Trinity College aged 14, he returned to liturgical music in 1996, winning a choral scholarship to the College. Later that year he was appointed Assistant Director of Music (under Michael Fulcher, and later Michael Leighton Jones) and subsequently Music Tutorial Coordinator.
Philip studied conducting with the late Robert Rosen, firstly as part of his studies at the University of Melbourne, and privately afterwards. He has participated in masterclasses with conductors Stefan Parkman, Margaret Pride, Bob Chilcott and Weston Noble in Australia, and David Willcocks, Geoff Weaver, John Rutter and David Hill in England.
Recordings of Philip directing the Choir of Trinity College singing works by Stanford and Arthur Wills are released on the Cherubic and ABC Classics labels. His musicological studies of liturgical music at the University of Melbourne culminated in a dissertation on the music of the Chapel of Trinity College between 1917 and 1957, and his recording of Josquin’s Ave Maria with the Choir of Trinity College was included on ABC Classics’ The Best Ever Choral Music Collection.
As a measure of his standing in Australia’s liturgical music community, early in 2005 Philip was invited to become a consultant member of the Australian Hymn Book Editorial Committee. He was appointed General Editor in 2006. He is regularly consulted by the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne on the musical content of major diocesan liturgies, most recently for the service of Installation and Recognition of Bishop Philip Freier as Archbishop of Melbourne in December 2006. He is soon to be appointed Anglican representative to the National Ecumenical Church Music Committee (NECMC).
As an Arts Administrator, Philip has consulted for the NECMC, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the internationally renowned Melbourne International Festival of the Arts ‘Bach 2000’ project in 1999-2000.
Philip has conducted first performances of works by Melbourne-based composers Calvin Bowman, David Barmby, Peter Campbell and Michael Leighton Jones, and in 2004-05 he led the commissioning of a new work from ARIA Award-winning composer Christopher Willcock, Missa Aedes Christi, the first performance of which he directed in 2005. In December 2006, with the Choir of Christ Church South Yarra, he directed an Australian first performance of a new work by internationally acclaimed Australian composer Colin Brumby.