Listen:
London End Near (folk pop stuff for fans of guitars and voices and such)
Youtube (noisy saxophone stuff for fans of noise and saxophones)
Soundcloud (more noisy stuff)
Who am I?
Nicholas Hann is a composer, saxophonist and teacher.
Nicholas performs free improvisations and composes electro-acoustic music for theatre and art instillations.
He studied Classical Saxophone with John Harle and Christian Forshaw at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2015-2019 and received a First Class BMus(Hons) and the Concert Recital Diploma.
Nicholas is one half of the folk-duo ‘London End Near’ who released their debut EP, ‘Never Better’ in May 2023.
On the 24th June 2023, he performed a free improvisation on Scottish small pipes and electronics as part of Nabihah Iqbal’s curated ‘Sonic Voyages’ at Art Night Dundee.
On the 13th June 2023, his electro-acoustic music will formed part of Amanda Vesthardt’s art installation ‘The Bathroom’ at the Prague Quadrennial. The instillation is a combination of costume, dance and music.
In October 2022, he performed my 30 minute piece for saxophone and electronics, ‘700 Million Years of Jellyfish’ , at Iklectic Waterloo. The performance is discussed in my interview for Artefact Magazine in the article ‘What a Saxophonist Feels About Music and Freedom’.
In August 2022, for the Culture Mile and Ruff Squwad Arts, Nicholas worked with young producers, introducing them to the woodwind instruments and workshopping their productions. The week culminated in a live performance at the Museum of London Grime Stories exhibition.
In April 2022, Nicholas’s opera ‘Tabby Mctat’ premiered at Guildhall. The chorus was formed of children from a local primary school. Naomi Butcher (the conductor) and Nicholas spent a term with the chorus providing rehearsals and workshops on the history of opera. The goal of the project was to make the children feel included in the process of creating the opera and in the world of classical music.
In May 2022, for the Canal Dream series produced by Chuntian Hu and Ran Saperaude, Nicholas collaborated with dancers and visual artists for performances on canal boats and at Slash Arts Gallery. The performance involved collaboration between eastern and western instruments. The project opened up many conversations about the differences in approach to music in China and Japan compared to the west. In response, I have begun playing the Chinese Sheng and the Japanese Shakuhachi.
In February 2022, For the Classical Meets Jazz Course (in collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra and Hackney Music Service) he led sectionals, improvised and devised new musical material based on Haydn’s Creation. The course is primarily for BAME students and students underrepresented in classical music. The course culminated in performances at Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican.
Nicholas’s teaching career is as varied as his creative output. Nicholas teaches composition and woodwind for Hackney Music Service. He has taught early years music, worked as a répétiteur for ballet classes and taken part in the Wigmore hall Chamber Tots scheme.
