Nicholas Pauly
nipauly@gmail.com
718-928-4076
Brooklyn-based contemporary violist, violinist, composer
Education:
Manhattan School of Music: M.M. in classical performance (2014)
The Royal Danish Academy of Music: M.M. semester abroad (2013)
Rutgers University: B.A. in economics; concentration in composition (2010)
Major performance instructors: Karen Ritscher, Laurie Smukler, Lars Anders Tomter, Tim Frederiksen, Karen Dreyfuss
Composition instructors: Andrea Mazzariello, Nathalie Joachim, Randy Woolf, Kimberly Riedel
2024 Projects:
Versa Duo new music at Eighth Blackbird Festival
Spring Awakening
This Will Destroy You anniversary show at Poisson Rouge
Shocking Red - contemporary chamber music by Kathleen Supove and Michelle Shocked
Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Third Street Music School's “Velveteen Rabbit” ballet, Hell's Kitchen Laboratory Orchestra (concertmaster), Mahler Symphony No. 1 with Fort Greene Orchestra, solo violin with DaCapo Choir, American Dominican Classical Association
Notable productions since 2020
Versa Duo, founding member with Allyson Clare, contemporary violin/viola, rotating roles
Neflix film soundtrack, “Mixtape” with Tamar-Kali
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, performance with Andrea Bocelli
Bang on a Can “Long Play” music for singing bowls and haegum by Soo Yeon Lyuh
Nightfall at Greenwood Cemetery, all-evening performance for singing bowls
Rhymes With Opera final concert, contemporary opera co. by Ruby Fulton and George Lam
Streetlight Manifesto rock orchestra in Boston, MA
Music by Dev Hynes with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Marni Fashion Week, and with Adam Tendler at BAM
Jason Treuting and So Percussion: “Go Placidly With Haste” (viola, percussion)
Ensembles:
Concerts on the Slope (2017-present) - works by Tania Leon, Jessie Montgomery, Roberto Sierra and more
New England Symphonic Ensemble, (violin/viola, 2022-24)
IconiQuestra (2014-present) – chamber orchestra performs arrangements of anime and 1990s cartoon musical hits
Highline Quartet (2023-present)
Ensemble Mise-En (2017, 2020)
Hell's Kitchen Laboratory Orchestra (2023-24)
American Dominican Classical Artists (2023-24)
Mannes Orchestra (substitute violinist and violist, 2022-24)
String Orchestra of Brooklyn (2017-23)
New York Tutti Chamber Ensemble (2016-19)
Other ensembles: Ensemble 212, She Loves Me, Sly 5th Ave, Numinous, Empire Men's Chorus, Manhattan Symphonie, Nick Scarim duo, New York Chamber Players, City Lyric Opera, Little Opera, Jason Treuting, Protestra, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Spring Awakening at A.R.T. Theater, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra
Teaching experience:
Third Street Music School Settlement (2015-present)
Strings Faculty 2015-21, substitute 2021-present.
Suzuki method violin and viola instruction, individual lessons and group classes.City Strings (2022-present)
InterSchool Orchestra (2017-18)
Viola Sectional Coach
Harmony Program (2014-15)
Violin Instructor, Success Academy Middle School.
Long-term projects:
nonstructures (2018-present)
Semi-improvised compositions for a variety of instruments and objects, focused on cultivating musical gesture and expression on unfamiliar sound-makers
Sonnets for Singing Bowls (2019-present)
Short melodies and sketches for subsets of 40 singing bowls
Four C3s for One (2016-17, 2023-24)
Ongoing personal project is a 30-minute malleable work for viola with four unison C strings. It has been performed at the Bang on a Can Festival and multiple venues in New York City. The project has expanded from a through-composed work to include multiple players and scordatura.
Select Performed Repertoire List
Small ensemble:
Kaija Saariaho: Cloud Trio
Elliott Carter: Au Quai (viola and bassoon)
Elliott Carter: Elegy
Caroline Shaw: Entr'acte
Henry Gorecki: String Quartet No. 2
Tristan Murail: Garrigue (viola, cello, bass flute, percussion)
Tania Leon: String Quartet No. 2
Mario Davidovsky: String Trio
George Benjamin: Viola, Viola
Samuel Adler: Into the Radiant Boundaries of Light (viola, guitar)
Arnold Schoenberg: String Quartet No. 4
Robert Honstein: Talking in Circles
Morton Feldman: The Viola In My Life (viola, piano)
Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Anna Clyne: In Her Arms
Betsy Jolas: Music to Go (viola and cello)
Anton Webern: Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
Michael Daugherty: Viola Zombie
John Luther Adams: In a Treeless Place, Only Snow
David Lang: Ark Luggage (soprano and string quartet)
Anna Meadors: Manifesto on the Ledge
Molly Herron: Widening Circles (viola, cello, and string orchestra)
Solo:
Elliott Carter – Figment IV
Charles Wuorinen – Viola Variations
George Perle – Viola Sonata
Kenji Bunch – The 3 G's
Joan Tower – Wild Purple
Derek Cooper – Hypnosis
Nick Scarim – Suite for Solo Viola
Jeon Dohyun – Violets
Select compositions:
The Flash (bowed chair, restrung viola, fans, fire bells, 2024)
Alarm Sounds Gently (trio for singing bowls and fire bells, 2023)
An Unlikely Marriage (parlor piano and synthesizer, 2022)
eight hands (string quartet, 2022)
Moog Apothecary (theremin and viola, 2022)
Four Down (contrabass flute, 2020)
Winter Melodies for Violin and Orchestra (2019)
nonstructures i-xi (2018-20),
boil to simmer (violin, 2018)
Four C3s for One (viola, 2016-17)
Violas Duet Better (viola trio, 2015)
Cadenza to Joseph Stamitz, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in D Major (2014)
Reflections and Musings (viola, 2013)
Row Play (piano/percussion quartet, 2011)
Merging Dichotomies (string quartet, 2010)
Interlude for Wind Quartet (2009)
Gowanus Dawn (violin and electronics, 2009)
Crash (flute and marimba, 2008)
Breathless Sun (violin, clarinet, trombone, 2006)
Festivals and Workshops:
Eighth Blackbird Laboratory, 2024
So Percussion Summer Institute, 2023 (composition)
Montreal Lab, 2018 (viola, waterphone, composition)
Waterloo Region Contemporary Music Sessions, 2017
Next Festival of Emerging Artists, 2017
Bang on a Can Festival, 2016
Institute and Festival for Contemporary Music at Mannes: 2014-16
Making Score: 2003-2006, 2008-2010 (composition)
Master classes:
Kazuhide Isomura, Rolf Schulte, Curtis Macomber, Susan Palma Nidel, Wendy Richman, Steven Mackey, Reiko Füting, Derek Bermel, Anna Clyne