Nicholas Fagnili is a composer, teacher, and performer based in Pittsburgh, PA. Nicholas received his Composition degree from Ithaca College, studying with Dana Wilson, Jorge Grossman, Louise Mygatt, and Evis Sammoutis. He also studied piano with Greg DeTurck, Dmitri Novgorodsky, and Diane Birr; and harpsichord with Jean Clay Radice and Mary Holzhauer.
At Ithaca College, Nicholas received the 2019 Louis Smadbeck Prize for his trio for clarinet, piano and cello: Naphtha. He also received the Best Music award from the 2019 Ithaca Student Film Festival for Chipped. Nicholas also focused his Music History research on Third Stream music, studying with Dr. Sara Haefeli.
Nicholas believes that creating and improvising freely should be a normal part of anyone’s musical experience. His framework of creating and teaching is based on the natural characteristics of sound and harnessing these in one’s own unique way. Nicholas’s music embraces the multiplicities of life and draws from a wide variety of processes. Through his music, he seeks what new stories and feelings can be evoked by releasing our previous associations of harmony and structure.
Nicholas currently teaches piano and composition privately, and teaches K-5 music classes during the school year. He is also an assistant to composer Chinary Ung, whom he first met in a masterclass at Ithaca College.
Aside from his creative works, Nicholas is passionate about finding new ways to teach children music that foster a curiosity about the behavior of sound itself. He also holds workshops for music teachers on incorporating compositional elements into their lessons.
photo by Olivia Schultheis