Conductor

Larry Nickel

Dr. Larry Nickel, an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, is an active choral specialist. Larry sings bass in the Vancouver Chamber Choir and owns Cypress Choral Music Publishing (co-editing with Diane Loomer), which specializes in promoting Canadian choral composers.

Larry discovered his musical gift as a teenager, while studying in India under the International Baccalaureate Program. He began teaching music to young people in 1978.  In 1989, Larry almost died of viral encephalitis.  After what some would consider a miraculous recovery, Larry’s career as a composer took a dramatic turn.   In 1990 Larry and his friend,  Tony Funk,  founded the West Coast Mennonite Chamber Choir, often heard on CBC radio. This very fine choir recorded 13 CDs, featuring 120 of Larry’s compositions, and raised nearly a million dollars for the benevolent work of Communitas. 

In 1993 Larry won the International Association Jazz Educators Award for “outstanding service to jazz education”.  His Senior Choir was selected two years in a row, 2001 and 2002, by Varsity Vocals’ international search for the Best of High School Choirs. After 25 years of teaching Larry completed a DMA in Composition at UBC with the guidance and friendship of Stephen Chatman.

Requiem for Peace, his doctoral thesis, is an extensive work for chorus and symphony orchestra in 12 languages. Fred Sjöberg will conduct the new chamber choir version in Orebro next spring and the work will receive a seventh presentation by the World Choral Federation, Europa Cantat XVIII, in Torino - August 2012.

Larry’s music has been recorded by Ben Heppner, Edith Wiens, Colin Balzer, Pinchas Zukerman, the National Youth Orchestra, the Brandenburg String Quartet, the NACO Woodwind Quintet and many choirs. His music is published by ten companies including G. Schirmer and Oxford University Press.

Larry lives by the water in Vancouver with his wife, Edna; close to their children and grandsons.