Nicole Denington
Born in Australia, Nicole completed a degree in Drama at the Queensland University of Technology and then went on to win a scholarship to a post-graduate diploma in Acting at the London Academy of Performing Arts. She completed a graduate Degree in Education at the University of Queensland, with a major in English and a minor in music in July 2004, completing her final teaching practicum on scholarship in Vancouver Canada. She is currently teaching at Hillbrook Anglican School, Brisbane.
As a harpist, her recent performances include working with Christine Johnston in “Myrtle by the Water” for the Kids’ Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery. Nicole has performed extenisively in south-east Queensland, including several performances at the Woodford Folk Festival and the Sandgate Music by the water festival.
She has performed several times for the Brisbane public libraries, presenting both music and the spoken word performances. In 2006, Nicole worked with Kanye West in the “Late Registration” Tour. She now owns four harps. The smallest is a portable folk harp. The largest is a ¾ Classcal style folk harp made by master harp builder, Brandden Lassells. Her most recent acquisition is a five octave chromatic renaissance Harp made by Mark Blessley of Oregon, USA. It is a fully chromatic harp, without pedals of levers. In July of 2005 Nicole travelled to the International Society of Folk Harpers and Harp Makers Conference in Montana, USA, on an individual professional development grant from Arts Queensland in order to learn more about this extremely rare and difficult instrument. Here she had a master class with Harper Tasche, one of the world’s leading exponents of folk cross-strung harp.
While living in London, she played regularly at the British Museum and several leading London hotels and restaurants. She is available for weddings, functions or in any capacity that may allow her to bring pleasure to those who hear her play. In addition to having released two CD’s, Celtic Angels (1998) and Convergence (2006).
Nicole plays a wide variety of music with selection from her own compositions inspired by both ancient and contemporary musical styles. Nicole is developing a fusion style ambient Harp is currently developing a new CD that will introduce listeners to this exciting new sound.