Composer Profiles

Nicolas Collins

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Nicolas Collins

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for RealAudio 3 comments by the composer, 2:16. (RA2 / 14.4 version)
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for RealAudio 3 mono version of Broken Light, first movement, 2:16. (RA 2 / 14.4 version)
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for RealAudio 3 stereo version of Broken Light first movement, 2:16.
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for TrueSpeech version of Broken Light conclusion, 2:16 / 142K.
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for MPEG-2 version of Broken Light, 2:16 / 533K.

New! Nicolas Collins interview, part of the EST magazine web site.

Nicolas Collins was born in New York City in 1954, and has been composing and performing since the early 1970s. He studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University and worked for several years with David Tudor. He was a pioneer in the use of microcomputers in live performance, and has made extensive use of "home-made" electronic circuitry, radio, found sound material, and transformed musical instruments. His recent work emphasizes spoken word, and combines idiosyncratic electronics with conventional acoustic instruments.

He has presented over 300 concerts and installations in the United States, Europe, and Japan as a solo artist, as a member of David Tudor's "Composers Inside Electronics," with his own ensembles, and in collaboration with The Barton Workshop, Tom Cora, Peter Cusack, The Downtown Ensemble, Shelley Hirsch, Impossible Music, Guy Klucevsek, Ron Kuivila, Christian Marclay, David Moss, Ben Neill, Jim O'Rourke, Robert Poss, Relache, Elliott Sharp, the Soldier String Quartet, John Zorn, and others.

Two albums of his music have been released by Lovely Records, three by Trace Elements Records, and he has contributed to a dozen compilations, including Banned, John Doe, Slowscan, Tellus, Nonesuch, Hat Art, These Records, RRRecords and Unknown Public. In 1989 he produced Imaginary Landscapes, a CD compilation of new electronic music, for Nonesuch Records. He has been commissioned by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Zeitkratzer, Jonathan Impett, Lesley Olsen, Guy Klucevsek, the Soldier String Quartet, Mainspring Brass Quartet, Ger van Elk, NCRV, Korzo Theatre, and The Kitchen.

He has curated concerts for PS 1, The Clocktower, The Kitchen, Relache and Podewil, and served on the board of directors of Roulette and Harvestworks/PASS. He relocated to the Netherlands in the fall of 1992, where he was co-director of The Barton Workshop and a member of the board of directors of the Rumori and Korzo concert series. From 1992 to 1995 he was co-director of Stichting STEIM in Amsterdam. He is currently a DAAD artist-in-residence in Berlin, and composer-in-residence with the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin.

Discography on Lovely Music Releases:

Let The State Make The Selection
Going Out With Slow Smoke

Representative musical compositions:

100 of the World's Most Beautiful Melodies
Broken Light Kalvos's Top 100
Devil's Music
Going Out With Slow Smoke
It Was A Dark and Stormy Night Damian's Top 100
Like A Falling Stone
Pet Sounds
Say Uncle
Tobabo Fonio
Western Eyes

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

Sound Without Picture

Please reach the composer via his on-line address:
nicc@xs4all.nl