Nicholas trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). A keen performer of contemporary music, he has performed in a number of world premieres, including King Kong by Jeffrey Ching for Theatre Magdeburg, the title role in To see the Invisible by Emily Howard at the Aldeburgh festival, the first recording of Margaret Catchpole by Stephen Dodgson for Naxos, the lead in the Portuguese and British premiers of Hummus by Zad Moultaka, and Andy in the European premier of Losers by Richard Wargo. He has performed Maxwell Davies’ Mad King with Shadwell Opera, and appeared live on TV in Croatia as Smirnov, The Bear. Other roles include Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Marcello in La Boheme, Harlekin Ariadne auf Naxos, The Learned Judge, Trial by Jury, Forester in Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen, Denisov, War and Peace in Scotland and Russia, Tchelio, L’amour des trois Oranges, Arcalaus, Amadis de Gaule by J.C.Bach, The Officer in Philip Glass’s In the Penal Colony in London’s West End, Emperor Überall, the Emperor of Atlantis, Junius, The Rape of Lucretia, both Dancairo and Escamillo, Carmen, Peter, Hänsel und Gretel, Lindorf, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Don Giovanni, and Count Almaviva, Marriage of Figaro. Before training as an opera singer, Nicholas studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, where, when not singing or playing rugby, he read history and philosophy of science. During his time at Cambridge he was a member of King’s College Choir. He began his singing career as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral.