Biography - Nicholas O'Neill

Tutor in organ studies and chant accompaniment

Nicholas O'Neill was born in Cheltenham in 1970, and lives in London, where he works as a composer, performer, conductor and lecturer. He gained his F.R.C.O. whilst still at school and then went to Magdalen College, Oxford, as Organ Scholar, graduating in 1992 with a degree in Music.

In 1992 he was unanimously awarded the Norwich Festival Composition Prizethe follwoing year he won both the Cornelius Cardew Composition Prize and the Gregynog Young Composers' Award. He shared the Barbara Johnstone (composition) Prize in 1995. Nick has also been shortlisted for the William Mathias, Cornelius Cardew, Oare String Orchestra, Purcell and Vocalis composition awards.

Formerly Head of Musical Techniques at Trinity College of Music, Nick is now Associate Music Director of the Occam Singers, Chorus Master of the Parliament Choir and the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir, Organist and Assistant Director of Music at St George's Cathedral, Southwark, Head of Organ Studies at Brighton College and the London Oratory School. He also lectures for Birkbeck, University of London.

Nick is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Saint Cecilia, on whose advisory panel he sits. He has recently been appointed the Academy's first Composer In Residence. Recent commissions include several masses and motets for St George’s Cathedral and a motet for Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal. His Ave verum corpus has been recorded by the Oxford Camerata and is available on the Hyperion label.