South African-born pianist Nico de Villiers has been the Assistant Director of Music at LCS since 2009. He is a coach, collaborative pianist and researcher based in London and holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Nico has performed in prestigious venues such as Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, the Barbican and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London; Birmingham Symphony Hall; the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Kammermusiksaal, Bonn and the Mozarteum Grosser Saal, Salzburg. Festival performances include the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Chopin Birthday Festival in Warsaw, Poland and the International Johannesburg Mozart Festival in South Africa.

Nico is a coach on the vocal faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has been a vocal coach at various tertiary institutions including the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Trinity Laban Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in London. He lead masterclasses and workshops at institutions including Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, University of Portland, Interlochen Arts Camp in the United States, Kungliga Musikhögskolan, Stockholm and Falun Akademie in Sweden, the Birmingham Conservatory, England, and various universities across his native South Africa.

He has been on the faculty of various summer programmes including the Oxenfoord Summer Programme, the Abingdon Summer School of Solo Singers, the Aderley International Music School in the United Kingdom, the American Institute of Musical Studies, Graz, Austria, the International Music Academy in Pilsen, Czech Republic, and the Jablonski Piano Academy in Karlskrona, Sweden.

As a researcher Nico has a particular interest in the unearthing and performing of neglected and undiscovered composers. In 2008 Nico performed a complete series of the piano chamber music of Hungarian pianist-conductor-composer Ernst von Dohnányi (1877-1960) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Thereafter Nico made the first recording of Piano Sonata (1958) by Polish pianist-composer André Tchaikowsky (1935-1982) for the Toccata Classics label and he features in the documentary Rebel of the Keys that focuses on André Tchaikowsky’s life and the revival of his opera The Merchant of Venice at the Bregenz Festival. Nico performed several of Tchaikowsky’s piano works and songs across the UK, Poland and South Africa.

In 2018, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama awarded Nico a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) for his extensive research into the songs of the Dutch-American and Oscar-winning composer and conductor Richard Hageman (1881-1966). Nico founded the Richard Hageman Society (RHS) to focus scholarship and research into Hageman’s work and life. As director of the RHS, Nico opened the Richard Hageman Aqueduct and unveiled a memorial plaque at Hageman’s birthplace in Leeuwarden. Nico has widely performed Hageman’s songs, curated exhibitions of the RHS archives, and presented various lecture recitals and presentations at conferences and symposiums in the UK, the USA, the Netherlands, and Georgia. Nico’s articles have been published in Classical Singer, Pianist and Opera magazines. Nico co-authored the first critical biography Richard Hageman: From Holland to Hollywood with Kathryn Kalinak (Rhode Island College) and Asing Walthaus (Leeuwarder Courant) for Peter Lang Publications.