Harpist, Teacher and Workshop Leader
Sarah Nichols, born and educated in Paris where her parents settled, is the daughter of a Rhodesian (now Zimbabwean) mother and a Welsh Patagonian father. She puts her love of travel and her interest in exotic climes and people down to this unusual heritage, in which she grew up bilingual and seeing the world from an early age.
Sarah first fell in love with the harp when, aged three and on a family visit to Wales, she saw someone playing in an old Victorian house that had been turned into a museum. She was immediately entranced by this magnificent instrument.
Currently, Sarah Nichols resides in the Netherlands, where she is studying the NAIP Music Master (New Audiences and Innovative Practices - http://www.jointmusicmaster.org/) at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, after having received, in 2011, her Bachelor's degree in music, studying harp with Ernestine Stoop and a secondary qualification in Pedagogy.
Parallel with her career as a performing artist, Sarah is a committed and enthusiastic teacher and workshop leader. She works with students of all ages and all levels, and has begun writing a harp methodology book for beginners. In 2010, Sarah joined the MEMO Foundation (Memorabele Momenten), which encourages children to discover music from a young age by offering them regular interactive performances in their own safe environment. Currently Sarah is preparing an educational project in South Africa to take place in 2012 and 2013.
Sarah enjoys playing in unusual venues such as art galleries, various restaurants, schools, gardens and historical sights (such as the one during the Cum Laude festival in Leiden). She is currently preparing a concert programme for art galleries in The Hague combining the harp and storytelling, with historical and fictional stories about the paintings in the galleries.
Sarah plays regularly alongside a variety of other instruments: flute, percussion, saxophone, cello, guitar, and voice. She is passionate about contemporary music and has played many contemporary works by composers such as Tan Dun, Tôn-Thât Tiêt, Ryohei Hirose, Schnittke, Flothuis and Andriessen.
Combining performance with her love of travel, she has given solo recitals at both public and private events, as well as charity concerts, in several European countries, the United States, Zimbabwe and South Africa; in Europe and the USA, she has also played in harp and chamber ensembles, and with orchestras.
With Mexican percussionist Aldo Aranda, she is currently working on a new concert programme and CD recording, which will include music by the Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, and Australian composer Jessica Wells.
Sarah first fell in love with the harp when, aged three and on a family visit to Wales, she saw someone playing in an old Victorian house that had been turned into a museum. She was immediately entranced by this magnificent instrument.
Currently, Sarah Nichols resides in the Netherlands, where she is studying the NAIP Music Master (New Audiences and Innovative Practices - http://www.jointmusicmaster.org/) at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, after having received, in 2011, her Bachelor's degree in music, studying harp with Ernestine Stoop and a secondary qualification in Pedagogy.
Parallel with her career as a performing artist, Sarah is a committed and enthusiastic teacher and workshop leader. She works with students of all ages and all levels, and has begun writing a harp methodology book for beginners. In 2010, Sarah joined the MEMO Foundation (Memorabele Momenten), which encourages children to discover music from a young age by offering them regular interactive performances in their own safe environment. Currently Sarah is preparing an educational project in South Africa to take place in 2012 and 2013.
Sarah enjoys playing in unusual venues such as art galleries, various restaurants, schools, gardens and historical sights (such as the one during the Cum Laude festival in Leiden). She is currently preparing a concert programme for art galleries in The Hague combining the harp and storytelling, with historical and fictional stories about the paintings in the galleries.
Sarah plays regularly alongside a variety of other instruments: flute, percussion, saxophone, cello, guitar, and voice. She is passionate about contemporary music and has played many contemporary works by composers such as Tan Dun, Tôn-Thât Tiêt, Ryohei Hirose, Schnittke, Flothuis and Andriessen.
Combining performance with her love of travel, she has given solo recitals at both public and private events, as well as charity concerts, in several European countries, the United States, Zimbabwe and South Africa; in Europe and the USA, she has also played in harp and chamber ensembles, and with orchestras.
With Mexican percussionist Aldo Aranda, she is currently working on a new concert programme and CD recording, which will include music by the Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, and Australian composer Jessica Wells.
Photos by Aafke Schaapherder
