Nicholas O'Neill (composer)
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Nicholas O'Neill
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1970|4|1}}
| birth_place = Cheltenham
| image_size = 180
| instrument = Organ
| genre = Classical
| occupation = Composer, organist
| website = {{url|http://www.nicholasoneill.com/}}
}}
Nicholas O'Neill (born 1 April 1970) is an English composer, arranger, organist and choral director.
Biography
O'Neill attended The King's School, Gloucester, and was a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral under the direction of John Sanders. O'Neill went on to study music at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar, first under John Harper and then under Grayston "Bill" Ives.{{Cite web |title=Nicholas O'Neill - composer |url=http://www.composer.co.uk/composers/oneill.html |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=www.composer.co.uk |archive-date=3 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303154620/https://www.composer.co.uk/composers/oneill.html |url-status=live }}
O'Neill holds the posts of Composer in Residence to the Parliament Choir{{Cite web|url=http://www.parliamentchoir.org.uk/conductors|title=Conductors | The Parliament Choir|website=Parliamentchoir.org.uk|accessdate=10 August 2020|archive-date=20 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120075723/http://www.parliamentchoir.org.uk/conductors|url-status=live}} and to the Academy of Saint Cecilia.{{Cite web |url=http://www.academyofsaintcecilia.com/Members/index.shtml |title=The Academy of St Cecilia - Members |access-date=6 January 2013 |archive-date=1 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131201220347/http://www.academyofsaintcecilia.com/Members/index.shtml |url-status=dead }} He is also President of Cantores Salicium, and associate director of Music at St. Mary Abbots Church, Kensington. He was Organist of St. George's Cathedral, Southwark,{{cite news |title=Organists Change Seats |url=http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/20th-july-2001/2/organists-change-seats |accessdate=6 January 2013 |newspaper=Catholic Herald |date=20 July 2001 |archive-date=3 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140503115345/http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/20th-july-2001/2/organists-change-seats |url-status=live }} until the end of 2010 and was Chorus Master to the Malcolm Sargent Festival Choir for a decade.
His music has been performed and broadcast internationally, his Missa Sancti Nicolai being chosen as the Mass setting for the BBC1 live television broadcast of Midnight Mass in 2011. His Christmas carol Sweet Was The Song was recorded by the BBC Singers in 2011 and featured in their Carols For Breakfast series, and his arrangement of This Joyful Eastertide featured as the Anthem on BBC Radio 4's The Daily Service in 2013 with the Choir of Exeter College, Oxford. He was subsequently invited to compose Flyht for Exeter College's 700th anniversary celebrations.{{Cite web|url=http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/node/1444|title=Exeter College Alumni News March 2014|website=Exeter.ox.ac.uk|accessdate=10 August 2020}} Flyht was recorded by the college choir and released on EM Records.{{Cite web|url=https://www.em-records.com/discs/emr-cd021-details.html|title=EM Records | Premières of Distinction | EMR CD021|website=Em-records.com|accessdate=10 August 2020|archive-date=19 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019214437/https://www.em-records.com/discs/emr-cd021-details.html|url-status=live}} Other notable works include From Damascus for the London Oratory School Schola, Mermaid for Surrey Arts, Why Should We Not Sing? for the Lloyd George Society.,{{cite news|title=Plaid Cymru peer: Lloyd George knew my grandmother|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-21130503|accessdate=21 January 2013|newspaper=BBC News|date=21 January 2013|archive-date=2 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202191511/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-21130503|url-status=live}} and against the pull of silence for string orchestra.
Awards
In the summer of 1992 his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis on E was unanimously awarded first prize in the Norwich International Festival of Contemporary Church Music Composition Competition. In the following year his Quartet In Three Movements won the Gregynog Young Composers' Award, and his Ave Verum shared the Schola Cantorum's International Composition Competition Award in 1994.{{Cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/may06/Children_of_our_time_CDA67575.htm|title=Children of our Time CDA67575 [GH]: Classical CD Reviews- May 2006 MusicWeb-International|website=Musicweb-international.com|accessdate=10 August 2020|archive-date=6 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006113343/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/may06/Children_of_our_time_CDA67575.htm|url-status=live}}
His Festive Voluntary was awarded the 2012 American Guild of Organists Marilyn Mason Award for Organ Composition,{{Cite web|url=http://www.agohq.org/2012/07/18/national-composition-awards-bestowed-at-ago-national-convention/|title=AGO Marilyn Mason Composition Award Winners 2012|website=Agohq.org|accessdate=10 August 2020}} in 2019 he won the commission competition for the 50th Anniversary Mayfield Festival, writing his Cantata Of Saint Dunstan,{{Cite web|url=https://mayfieldfestival.co.uk/events/cantata-of-st-dunstan/|title=Cantata of St Dunstan|website=Mayfieldfestival.co.uk|accessdate=10 August 2020|archive-date=25 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925124332/https://mayfieldfestival.co.uk/events/cantata-of-st-dunstan/|url-status=live}} and his Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis on Bb was awarded the Saint Fin Barre Cathedral, Cork Composition Prize early in 2020.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.nicholasoneill.com/ Nicholas O'Neill's website]
- [http://ukcomposer.wordpress.com/ Nicholas O'Neill's blog]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etecRLbKgp4 Missa Sancti Nicolai]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0185d8x Sweet was the Song]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill, Nicholas}}
Category:20th-century British classical composers
Category:21st-century British classical composers
Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Category:English classical composers
Category:Classical composers of church music
Category:English male classical composers
Category:20th-century English composers
Category:20th-century British male musicians