Nico de Villiers was born in South Africa. He is a freelance accompanist and coach in London. He was a Guildhall Artist and Fellow in Accompaniment studying with Charles Owen from 2008-2009.
In 1999 he made his debut with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and won the Musicon National Piano Competition and Belville Piano Competition as well as various other prizes in South Africa. He obtained his BMus(Hons) from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama as an ABRSM International Undergraduate Scholar and was awarded the MMus degree from the University of Michigan (U of M), Ann Arbor, USA under the tutelage of renowned pianist Martin Katz. He was a coaching fellow at the U of M from 2005-2007. He was the official coach and repetiteur for U of M’s production of Così fan tutte (Mozart) in 2007 and made his Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. debut in 2007. He received the Master of Musical Performance with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in August 2008 with distinction.
Various accolades include the Accompanist Prize at both the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as at the Royal Scottish Academy. International Scholarships from the ABRSM, University of Michigan, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Ernst Oppenheimer Trust (South Africa).
Nico has previously been a staff accompanist at the International Music Academy in Pilsen, Czech Republic and is currently a faculty member as opera coach at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz.
| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 14-Oct-2012 University of Leeds: Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall | Leeds Lieder+ From Europe to America – A Day of Song |
 The sharp linguistic and enunciative abilities of Romanian mezzo Adriana Festeu are as impressive as her singing. Accompanied by Nico de Villiers, she launched “Leeds Lieder+ From Europe to America – A Day of Song” in the morning at Leeds University’s Clothworkers Hall with “Songs My Mother Taught Me”. She dealt very convincingly with Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs in Czech, followed by 5 Lieder, Op. 38 by Korngold in English, and George Enescu’s Sept Chansons de Clément Marot in French.
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