"Powerful, Soul searching... beckons you enter within"
New York Creations Magazine
Pianistic trailblazer David Allen Nichols is out to redefine the 21st century experience of the classical concert with his 2019 Worlds in Collision performances. Playing some of the most taxing piano writing ever put on paper, Mr Nichols fuses together ten works of apocalyptic and visionary awe, from Franz Liszt to Pierre Boulez. Avant-garde and 19th century works mix, merge and collide to create the effect of a film score suggesting a drama of cosmic magnitude. There are five transcendently epic Franz Liszt works on the program along with avant-garde works by Pierre Boulez, Morton Feldman, and Nichols own mystically-charged, electronica-influenced EXO. It is a pure pianistic adventure.
Mr. Nichols' diverse and often epic interpretations have captivated audiences in film soundtracks, concerts, theater, radio and television. A master of the art of improvisation, Mr Nichols has also created entire works during performance including the medieval chant-inspired Evidence, released on CD to critical acclaim in 1996. His piano artistry, compositions and productions have been featured in the soundtracks of Corsair Pictures Miss Firecracker (1989), 123 Productions Dancing Across Borders (2009), Pacifica Radio Network's Talk More (2000), and on nationally syndicated NPR and PRI programs Hearts of Space and Echoes (2003) as well as on radio programs in italy, Norway, Germany, France, Spain and Japan.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Mr Nichols was a dedicated composer/ pianist by age thirteen. A winner of piano competitions and the recipient of numerous awards under the guidance of Betty Clark Moore and duo-pianists Allison Nelson and Harry Lee Neal, his young years were infused with a passion for composing music and creating improvisations in addition to studying the classical piano repertiore. Pianists Marilyn Shields-Wiltse and David Brandon Phillips were also an enduring source of inspiration during his formative years.
After completing his studies with William Doppmann and Nancy Burton Garrett at the University of Texas at Austin, Mr Nichols' reputation as an improvisational pianist brought him to New York where he worked as soundtrack pianist for Corsair Pictures, rehearsal pianist for actress Holly Hunter, jazz pianist at New York’s Eighty-Eights and pianist at American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet. His 1994 collaboration with the medieval Sequentia ensemble singer Janet Youngdahl led to the creation of the ambient-music CD Evidence. Since 2011 Mr Nichols has devoted himself to concertizing and composing. The creation of his solo piano work EXO was completed in 2015. A recording of the work is part of a forthcoming CD release.
