Nicholas Ma (b. 2001) is a pianist-composer living in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. He is in his third year as an undergraduate at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and is pursuing a double major in Piano Performance and Composition. At McGill, Nicholas was the recipient of the Paul-Marcel Gélinas et Verna-Marie Parr Gélinas Piano Award, the Sir William Peterson Memorial Scholarship, the Anna Paull Gertler Scholarships and the J.W. McConnell Scholarships, enabling him to further his studies under the tutelage of the legendary Georgian concert pianist Marina Mdivani (third-generation pupil of Franz Liszt), and Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman.
Starting piano at the age of 4, Nicholas has also obtained the ATCL Performance Diploma with the highest accolade, Distinction, from Trinity College London. After just a year of being accepted into the double major program for Composition as a second area of study, Nicholas received a Gold award in the 2021 Grand Maestro International Music Competition for his composition, Piano Quintet No. 1 in F Minor. More recently, Nicholas’ new piece for Bassoon and Viola, Witching Hour, was selected to be premiered as part of the 2021 MASC (McGill Association of Student Composers) Fall Concert. Nicholas has also played violin and piano with the Oakville Symphony Youth Orchestra, performed as a Bass singer in McGill’s Concert Choir, and recently performed as a pianist with the McGill Wind Orchestra.
