Login

Enter your username and password

Photo: Nathan Olfield

Visceral, immersive and progressive, Nick Wales's electronic classical music is internationally sought after. From empowering beauty to magnetic dark passages, Wales's textural compositions have inspired creative audiences across contemporary dance, popular and classical music, film and theatre.

Recent commissions include collaborations with choreographer Marina Mascarelle for Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon and Sydney Dance Company; The feature film score for True Spirit for Netflix feature dir. Sarah Spillane, ab intra for Rafael Bonachela and Sydney Dance Company, Zampatti Maton and Step Into Paradise for MAAS Powerhouse Museum, The Greatest Menace podcast soundtrack for AMAZON/Audible, the Helpmann Award nominated AM I for Shaun Parker and Company and a new immersive work Cathedral for the Bundanon Trust.

Nick's collaboration Nyapillilngu (Spirit Lady) with Aboriginal song man Rrawun Maymuru as featured in Sydney Dance Company's 2017 production Ocho won the Indigenous Language Award at the 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAS).

A master of building tension, drama and spectacle, Nick has soundtracked Sarah Spillane's feature films True Spirit (Netflix) and Around the Block. Television credits include Step into Paradise with Amanda Brown (ABC) , The Lost Diggers of Fromelles (channel 4 UK), Bird Nerd:The Art of Leila Jeffreys (ABC), Hannah Gadsby's Nakedy Nudes (ABC), Nothing to Lose (SBS) and Anatomy:Hair. (ABC).

Nick's musical collaborators include Sarah Blasko , Sophie Hutchings, Bree van Reyk, Veronique Serret, Sterogamous, Paul Mac, Jonny Seymour, Jess Green, Alyx Dennison, Jess, O'Donoghue, Jason Noble, Ngaiire.

Visual Art collaborators include Mel O'Callaghan, Lauren Brincat, Justin Shoulder and Hayden Fowler. His collaborative have works featured at the Bienialle of Sydney, MMCA Seoul, The Adelaide Bienalle of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and in public collections including The Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Australia and Artbank.

While Wales's contemporary dance scores are both challenging and abstract, his pop sensibilities are undeniable. Traversing all genres as a founding member of twice ARIA nominated art rock band CODA, he has also collaborated with Sarah Blasko for a number of years, writing the orchestral arrangements for her 2012 album I Awake and co-writing material for her albums on Eternal Return Depth of Field and Emergence.

Wales's undergraduate studies in composition were completed at Sydney University under Peter Sculthorpe, Ross Edwards and Anne Boyd. Nick holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Screen Composition from the Australian Film and Television School AFTRS.

AWARDS

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE AWARD (2020) | WINNER | NYAPILLINGU (SPIRIT LADY) WITH RRAYWUN MAYMURU | NIMAS (National Indigenous Music Awards)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE IN A DOCUMENTARY (2021) | NOMINATION | STEP INTO PARADISE (WITH AMANDA BROWN) | AACTA AWARDS

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (2014) | NOMINATION | AM I FOR SHAUN PARKER AND COMPANY | HELPMANN AWARDS FOR AUSTRALIAN LIVE PERFORMANCE

BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM (2007) | NOMINATION | CODA : CALLING MISSION MU | ARIA AWARDS

BEST WORLD MUSIC ALBUM (2002) | NOMINATION | CODA : THERE IS A WAY TO FLY | ARIA AWARDS

Nick Wales — current to January 2023