BIOGRAPHY
Nicole was born and raised in West Palm Beach, Florida. A creative from a very young age Nicole started singing at age 8 and has pursued an every expanding range of musical interests ever since. Taking a very strong interest in classical voice and opera Nicole attended both Middle school and High school of the Arts studying voice and has had the honor of studying at such prestigious summer programs as The Washington National Opera, Boston Tanglewood Institute, and Brevard Summer Music Festival. Nicole has won several well known vocal competitions such as the Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, and a finalist in the Classical Singer Summer Competition. She also studied as an apprentice in the Palm Beach Opera Apprenticeship program for two years (2016-17), working with the Palm Beach Opera staff and professionals in the industry to hone her craft and perform along side some incredible voices. After returning home winter break of 2018 she worked as an Intern with the Palm Beach Opera Education and Community Outreach department to organize community outreach events, and promote music in the community. In addition to voice, Nicole has has 6 years of classical and electric guitar, piano, and composition experience and 8 years of music theory. This skill set has been honed and expanded to include Ableton and Logic Pro production experience as well for the last 4 years.
In 2017, Nicole moved to Chicago to study musical composition at DePaul University and graduated in 2021.
During that time Nicole created several large projects:
Founder of Violet Meridian, in 2019 Nicole released her bands first EP entitled Shedding Skin. Violet Meridian is currently working on its next album with a tentative release date of January 2022.
Nicole composed a 15 minute composition (2021) for full orchestra entitled "Music of the Ainur".
2021, Nicole composed the film score for a short film entitled "RON".
Nicole has written compositions for a wide range of ensembles ranging from solo cello, vocal duet, trio fro voice piano and violin, full SATB choir, and wind ensemble + percussion strings and voice.
Nicole currently lives and works in Chicago Illinois as a freelance music teacher / composer.
“ I believe in a particular way of developing the mind of a young creative and only a very small portion of that process should focus on the dry rattling off of applied techniques. That is only a foundation from which the true artist emerges. It is about making that individual feel comfortable with expressing themselves, building a vocabulary and style that is unique their personal experience, and convincing them their artistic voice is worthy of being heard. So often I find young musicians and artists alike who’s growth is stunted because they are trying to reproduce someone else sound or style, and many teachers spend little to no time exploring the unique sound of each individual. That is my goal, to let that unreplicatable beauty shine through and produce more artists who are unafraid to be themselves.” - Nicole Kelly
