Biography

Nicholas Gold, cellist, is 21 year old music major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, he started his studies on the piano at the age of four and moved on to the cello when he turned ten.  Nicholas has been very active in the southeastern United States classical music where he has had the opportunity to play in many venues and ensembles.  He has been very active and held positions with the Huntsville Opera Theater, Huntsville Symphony, Shoals Symphony at the University of Alabama, Opera South, and many other ensembles.

In addition, he has been the winner of competitions and awards throughout the South and in New England United States. They include: University of Massachusetts concerto competition, Huntsville Symphony young artists competition, McCroy Scholarship, Huntsville Youth Orchestra Competition, Ruth Cole Webber Scholarship, and he was the 2004 Brevard Music Center Outstanding Artist. Presently, Nicholas is honored with the title “Deans Scholar” at the University Massachusetts. The dean created his scholarship in order for Nicholas to attend the University. In addition, he was also awarded the Chancellors “Talent Award.” Recently, Nicholas won the Alabama and Southern Young Artist college division in the Music Teachers National Association string solo competition. In April, he performed at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Co, for the MTNA national convention. The prestigious competition and association has a member total of 24,000 active teachers who send students to the competition.

This past year, he has toured from coast to coast. He has had performances playing the Schumann Cello Concerto with the University of Massachusetts Orchestra. He has also played in Michigan at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Recently, he had performances with the Amherst College Orchestra in San Francisco and Palo Alto. And last spring, Nicholas went to Washington D.C. and performed Schubert’s Cello Quintet with the renowned Lark String Quartet.

Nicholas has spent many of his summers at many different music festivals such as Kent/Blossom Music Center, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival.  He has been principal cellist every at every festival.  From 1999-2004 he was principal cellist of Alabama’s All-State Orchestra.  When he attended Kent/Blossom Music Festival he had the opportunity to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra.  The same summer he was heard with the Kent/Blossom chamber orchestra as a soloist with James Buswell and Ellen DePasquale. “The solo’s of Nicholas Gold, cello, continues to show how much the Kent/Blossom light shines” –Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Nicholas has had the opportunity to work with many outstanding cellists and conductors during his career.  Currently he is studying with Astrid Schween, cellist of the renowned Lark Quartet, at UMass Amherst.  Other cellists have included Carlton McCreery, Bernard Greenhouse, Richard Weiss, and Stephen Geber.  He has played under the direction of great conductors such as Keith Lockhard, David Effron, Victor Yampolsky, and Steven Smith.

In 2005, Nicholas joined the faculty of the Community Music School of Springfield and joined the faculty of Northampton Community Music Center in 2006. He resigned from the schools in 2007 to focus more on performing but still has a teaching studio in Amherst. During the school year Nicholas coaches and plays with the Amherst College cello section. Nicholas plays on a fine instrument generously loaned to him from the Carlsen Cello Foundation.