29 Apr Nicholas Finch
Since performing as a concerto soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age 18, Nicholas Finch has established himself as an artist of great depth and diversity – as a solo cellist, recitalist, orchestral principal, chamber musician, conductor, founder, and curator. The 2024/25 season will see Finch lead the fourth year of the Derby City Chamber Music Festival as its Founder and Artistic Director, which over its past three seasons has featured musicians from the Dover Quartet, the Escher String Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and more. As part of the festival, he leads the Derby City Sinfonietta as its conductor, which has featured musicians from the Boston Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, and more. He has additionally been featured as a guest conductor with the Louisville Orchestra. A highlight of the upcoming 2024/25 season includes performing Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Double Concerto” as cello soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, and as cello soloist in Saint-Saens’s Cello Concerto in A minor and as conductor in Beethoven’s “Egmont” overture with the Melrose Symphony.
Finch recently recorded his debut album “Nou Edition” with the NouLou Chamber Players, featuring three world-premiere cello concertos written for him, to be released in the spring of 2025. He recently performed as a secondary soloist with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Teddy Abrams’ ‘Mammoth’, performed by the Louisville Orchestra inside Mammoth Cave National Park. He also performed the American premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s concerto for cello and harp with the Skagit Symphony in Mt. Vernon, Washington. He served as cello artist-faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in the Summers of 2022-2024.
In recent seasons, Finch has collaborated with musicians from the Louisville Orchestra and others in the role of conductor, in works by Strauss, Copland, Glinka, Saint-Saens, Elgar, Dvorak, and more. Just months prior to the onset of COVID-19, he appeared as cello soloist in Richard Strauss’s “Don Quixote” with the Louisville Orchestra.
Finch was appointed Principal Cellist of the Louisville Orchestra by music director Teddy Abrams. He has appeared with the Boston-based chamber orchestra ‘A Far Cry’ on numerous concerts and recordings, one recording having been nominated for a Grammy Award. He has additionally appeared numerous times with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City
A native of Boston, Finch began his cello studies at the age of 12. He attended Harvard, Juilliard, the University of Michigan, and the Mannes College of Music, studying the cello with Andrew Mark, David Soyer, Harvey Shapiro, Richard Aaron, and Marcy Rosen. He has studied orchestral conducting with Kenneth Kiesler, Markand Thakar, Gerard Schwarz, and Michael Jinbo and Ludovic Morlot at the Pierre Monteux School. During the 2023-24 season, Finch was on leave of absence from the Louisville Orchestra to earn a second Masters Degree from the University of Michigan, this time in Orchestral Conducting.
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