Nick Bicat - Biog
Nick Bicat has written
music in all media, starting with songwriting
and theatre music, and extending over the years
to include musicals, opera, ballet, film, television,
recording and concert works for both orchestra
and choir.
FILM & TV
Nick Bicat's music has ranged from mass-audience TV productions
in the USA (Lace, A Christmas Carol, The
Scarlet Pimpernel), to art-house cinema
(Wetherby, The Reflecting Skin, Stella
does Tricks), and many TV films and series
in the UK (The Irish RM, Holding On, Births
Marriages & Deaths). Nick Bicat's score for
the feature film The Passion Of Darkly
Noon (written and directed by Philip
Ridley) won the award for Best Music Score at
the 1995 Film Festival in Sitges, Barcelona, and
he has twice been nominated for the BAFTA music
award (Cruel Train & Holding On).
THEATRE
Beginning with Nick Bicat's first commission (at age 19)
for the Castle Theatre in Farnham, Surrey, word-of-mouth
led to further work in theatres all round the
UK, including Nottingham Playhouse (for Richard
Eyre), the National Theatre (for David Hare -
Plenty, A Map of the World, The Bay at
Nice, Pravda, King Lear) and the Royal
Shakespeare Theatre (The Greeks
– John Barton). Nick Bicat's opera The Knife (book
& lyrics by David Hare and Tim Rose-Price)
was premiered at Joseph Papp's Theatre in New
York in 1987 (nominated for Best Musical Score
in the New York Drama Desk Awards). A stage musical
Peer Gynt (version & lyrics
by Adrian Mitchell) was commissioned and produced
by the Oxford Playhouse, as was All’s
Well (book and lyrics by Tony Bicat);
this was nominated for the Ivor Novello Award.
Elvira Madigan, originally commissioned
by the Malmö Stadtsteater, Sweden in 1991
has since been remounted with new productions
in Norway, Hungary, Germany, Italy and most recently
at the Riksteater Theatre Stockholm in September
1995. An English version is in preparation, as
is Talk to Me (an improvisatory
comic opera, book & lyrics by John Gardyne).
CONCERT HALL
Under The Eye Of Heaven, a work
for contemporary orchestra was commissioned by
Virgin Records and performed by the London Chamber
Orchestra at the Barbican Centre
in 1989, the Hammersmith Odeon
and London Arena in 1990 and
at an open air concert in Geneva in 1993 for the
BBC. In 1991 Dante, a concert
piece for taped electronics and choir, was written
featuring the London Chamber Orchestra, members
of the Hot House Flowers and Dave Stewart of the
Eurthymics for open-air performance in Moscow.
Symphony in Morris Minor (an
orchestral and choral work with soloists) was
commissioned and performed as the climax of an
open-air festival in Oxford in July 2000 to an
audience of 50,000. Requiem – Songs
in Memory is to be performed and recorded
this year by the conductor Andrew Parrott.
RECORD
Nick Bicat's work with recording artists started in 1986
when he wrote the title song for the American
TV series Lace, which was performed
by Deniece Williams. He later wrote string orchestrations
and played keyboards for Beverley Craven and Beth
Neislen Chapman, and more recently had two songs
recorded by PJ Harvey: Who Will Love me
Now? (lyric by Philip Ridley - selected
as Favourite Film Song by Radio 1 in 1998) and
This Is Mine (lyric by PJ Harvey).
Who Will Love me Now? was subsequently
covered by Sunscreem, and entered the top 40 UK
chart.
|