Nicholas Ashton was born in Preston, Lancashire and educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester (1973-1980), the Royal Northern College of Music (1980-1985), the University of Edinburgh (1992-1994) and on postgraduate scholarships at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique Geneva (1985-1986) and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt-am-Main (1986-1988).
His two principal teachers were Renna Kellaway (Chetham’s and RNCM) and Joachim Volkmann (Frankfurt). He also received instruction in masterclasses and coaching with Vlado Perlemuter, Jorge Bolet, David Wilde, Joaquin Achucarro, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Rainer Hoffmann, Roger Raphael, Malcolm Binns, Clifton Helliwell and Eli Goren. Nicholas also studied composition, harp (with Jean Bell) and harpsichord (with David Francis) during his school studies.
Following a debut at the 1980 Manchester International Festival in the city’s Free Trade Hall, Nicholas performed extensively as a soloist during his undergraduate and postgraduate studies. He subsequently worked for four years as a teacher and translator (in Frankfurt and Manchester, 1987-1990) and for one year in London as an assistant opera agent at Anglo-Swiss Artists’ Management (1991).
Nicholas resumed public performing in 1993 as a direct result of encouragement from Murray Perahia and the distinguished Schenkerian analysts Carl Schachter and William Rothstein (at the Centre for Advanced Studies, Snape in 1993); this also followed support and advice from Menahem Pressler (at the Centre for Music and Arts, Banff, Canada in 1996).
Since 2000, Nicholas has performed over 80 separate solo and chamber programmes for the Hamburg Chamber Arts Association (Hamburger Kammerkunstverein), of which he was Artistic Director in 2002 and 2003. He has additionally performed many times in concert series throughout the UK for music societies and universities (including at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Durham, Dundee, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Huddersfield, Leeds, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool Hope, Edinburgh Napier, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, RNCM, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire). In 2005 he was invited to give recitals and masterclasses at Central Washington University; in 2009 Tampere University for the Applied Sciences, Finland; in 2009 the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; in 2010 again to Tampere, Finland. He was invited to perform in the Amici della Musica concert series in February 2013 in Udine, Italy, at the Salford and Edinburgh Napier University Sonic Fusion Festivals , the Obertoene Festival in Hamburg in 2013 and the Oberhafen Halle 424 concert series (2015-2023).
Nicholas was a regular chamber music partner with the Edinburgh Quartet, performing with them a substantial part of the core piano quintet and quartet repertoire throughout Scotland, including at the Merchants’ Hall, Glasgow, the Music at Paxton Festivals, the Quartet’s Stockbridge Concert Series, at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh and the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Aberdeen and Edinburgh Napier.
From 1991-2020 Nicholas was Senior Lecturer, Programme Leader and Admissions Tutor for the B.Mus Honours degree within the music subject group at Edinburgh Napier University, with responsibility for performance. From 2011-2015 he was Director of Quality Assurance for the School of Arts and Creative Industries at the university. Nicholas was Programme Leader for the B.Mus. Honours degree for fifteen years (from 2000-2015) and was part of the validation teams for the B.Mus in 1996 and for Honours in 1998. His carefully nurtured students have been regularly successful in competition, as postgraduates at all the UK conservatoires and, in three cases, as Doctoral candidates (at the Universities of Phoenix, Arizona, Edinburgh and Toronto). He was also closely associated with the Ian Tomlin Music Trust, involving the support and training of gifted young musicians from Malta to study at Edinburgh Napier; and the Andrew Doig Bequest, providing masterclasses, concerts and training for voice students.
Nicholas was a Specialist External Assessor for undergraduates and postgraduates in Keyboard at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for ten years (2010-2020). He was also external examiner for piano from at St. Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh (2010-2013).
Nicholas has recently performed two series of themed programmes, the first of which, entitled Wasserklavier, centred around concrete and abstract evocations of water (St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Manchester, Hamburg). The second themed programme, entitled Birds and Landscapes, explored these subjects (with performances in Hamburg, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh University and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire); the concert at the Edinburgh Fringe centred around an exhibition at the Open Eye Gallery of the paintings and drawings of the distinguished artist, John Busby. Nicholas repeated the programme in Hamburg in August 2022 when live performances resumed. Further planned programmes will investigate themes of bells, fire, earth and air.
Nicholas studied with the widely respected music semiologist, the late Raymond Monelle, from 1992-1994 at the University of Edinburgh. He was also influenced by post-Frankfurt School philosophers (particularly Jurgen Habermas and Theodor Adorno) while attending lectures at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, from 1987-89. He is currently preparing work towards Ph.D, investigating the role of the performer in realizing the première text. In addition, he has keen interest in theories of film – particularly feminist film history and theory (including forthcoming papers on Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by the late Belgian director, Chantal Akerman, also concentrating on the work of the actress and campaigner Delphine Seyrig and her collaborations with Akerman, Alain Resnais, Marguerite Duras, Agnès Varda and Ulrike Ottinger). Nicholas has recently been the subject of a short book chapter by the Lake District writer and poet, Kerry Darbishire, in a memoir of her mother, Kay Callaghan, entitled “Kay’s Ark” (Handstand Press, 2016); in “Rough Ideas” by Sir Stephen Hough (Faber and Faber, 2019) and an autobiographical memoir by Hough, entitled “Enough – Scenes from Childhood”, published in early 2023.