Franz Nicolay
   President
   Composer

Franz Nicolay was born and grew up in New Hampshire, where he began playing violin at age four and piano a year later. Luckily, he had an exceptionally supportive violin teacher, who let him play a piece of his own at his first violin recital in Concord at age five, thus launching his career as a composer. Over the following years, he began playing French horn, and performed around New England on each of the three instruments with a variety of organizations, including the New Hampshire Music Festival; including at least one original composition on each recital.

In 1994, Nicolay attended the Berklee Summer Performance Program for jazz piano, and in 1995 entered the New York University jazz composition program, from which he graduated with honors in 1999. While at NYU, he studied primarily with Marc-Antonio Consoli, as well as Justin Dello Joio, Robert Rowe, Dafna Naphtali, Frank Kimbrough, Ted Nash, Ben Allison, Ron McClure, and others. In 1998, he was composer-in-residence with the NYU New Music & Dance Ensemble during a residency in Pisa, Italy; where selections from his quintet "...some time later, when the smoke had cleared..." were performed as part of their annual Strada Facendo arts festival. In 2000, dancer Diane Carroll choreographed her work Changes to his String Quartet No. 1.

During and after his time at NYU, Nicolay has performed regularly in New York and along the East Coast with various ensembles, including his own experimental group the Suckers ("...a witches brew of tonal experimentation...puts the 'art' back into musical artist." - garageband.com) and cabaret-punk collective the World/Inferno Friendship Society. He works extensively as a producer, songwriter, and session musician; has released several CDs under his own Eggshell Armor imprint; and writes for various film, television, dance, and theater projects. Most recently, he completed scores for an MTV "Rock The Vote" public service announcement, completed the Suckers' new release the colours & the crowns, and was co-composer and musical director for Chelsea Bacon's "Breaker: An Aerial Fairy Tale", which combined original songs and underscoring with aerial acrobatics and storytelling ("a groovy orchestra" - Village Voice; "magical songs...perhaps the most delightful addition to the work" - showbusinessweekly.com). In 2001, Nicolay organized "An Afternoon of Anti-Social Chamber Music" at Columbia University, a program of new music from emerging New York-based composers. The success of this concert led to the founding of Anti-Social Music, a new-music collective of composers and performers that presents concerts at least twice annually.