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B i o g r a p h y

Hailed as a “gifted young artist” (Fanfare Magazine, USA), Singaporean pianist and composer Nicholas Ho has appeared throughout Asia and North America in both capacities. Notable performances in recent seasons include a New York City debut at Steinway Hall, and an American concerto debut with the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago. This season, Nicholas features in recitals in Singapore, Phnom Penh, Munich, and Texas.

In 2006, Nicholas appeared in the Channel NewsAsia mini-documentary series, “Wonder Kids of Asia”, and went on to have his concerto debut with Mozart’s 14th Piano Concerto in 2007. He had subsequently made several concerto appearances with various orchestras in Singapore, with works including Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, and the world premiere performance of Robert Casteel’s Concerto pour piano et orchestra de chambre. His performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto was described by The Straits Times as “electrifying”. Also an avid recitalist, Nicholas has given numerous recitals in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for various charitable causes. In addition, he has also given Asian and American premieres of new solo piano works. Mr. Ho was a Piano Fellow at the 2018 Manchester Music Festival, where he performed major chamber works including Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio no. 1, and Milhaud’s La Creation du Monde.

 

Nicholas holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he received a full-tuition scholarship. He also holds Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance (Distinction) from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, as well as a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts. His teachers and mentors include Ong Lip Tat, Tedd Joselson, Edward Auer, and Ran Dank. Amongst various accolades, Nicholas was awarded the Jury Special Prize at the 5th Asian Youth Music Competition Open Category in 2012, Second Prize at the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and First Prizes at both the CCPA and CCM Concerto Competitions.

 

Also a composer, Nicholas studied composition with eminent Singaporean composer Tan Chan Boon. His output includes two sets of art songs, a Sonata for Violin and Piano, and a Piano Sonata. Recently completed compositional projects include a monumental set of 12 Études for solo piano, which will soon be released commercially. Eminent pianist, composer, and writer Sir Stephen Hough describes Nicholas’ Twelve Etudes as “an important addition to the repertoire…full of invention, colour and virtuosity, combining intellectual rigour with emotional warmth.”

 

Nicholas is an Arabesque Records artist, having released his debut commercial recording, Illumine, consisting of works by Carter, Ho, and Rachmaninoff on the New York based label. Huntley Dent on Fanfare proclaimed Nicholas as an pianist possessing a technique that is “powerful and fluent” and as an artist with a “poetic nature”. A second recording on Arabesque, Interplay, exploring sonata-form works by Schumann, Ho, and Barber, has also been released in September 2022. His recordings have been broadcast on important radio stations over the globe, including WQXR and WGXC in New York, WFMT in Chicago, WGUC in Cincinnati, KMFA and WRR in Texas, and KUSC and KALW in California.

 

Nicholas also enjoys solving puzzles; he developed the "Sandwich Method", a direct-solving method for higher order Rubik's cubes (4x4x4 and above).

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