Biografia
Nick Bicât, born in Reading, England, has Ukrainian, French, Chechen, and Irish roots. He began composing for theatre at 18, eventually creating over 150 scores and soundtracks for film, television, theatre, festivals, and concerts. A BAFTA winner and two-time nominee, his notable film and TV scores include A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott, The Scarlet Pimpernel featuring Antony Andrews, Sir Ian McKellen, and Jane Seymour, Wetherby by Sir David Hare, and The Reflecting Skin by Philip Ridley. He has composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, written eleven musicals, and created the opera The Knife with Sir David Hare, which won best musical score at the 1989 New York Drama Desk Awards. His collaborators have included Tony Bicât, Edward Bond, Adrian Mitchell, Howard Brenton, and Ted Hughes.
His orchestral piece Under the Eye of Heaven was performed at the Barbican and London Arena. Other concert works include When Will There Be Peace?, an internationally televised open-air concert for the International Red Cross in Geneva, and Symphony in Morris Minor, commissioned for the millennium and performed in Oxford before an audience of 50,000 in 2000.
As a songwriter, Nick Bicât has written for Emma Kirkby, Deniece Williams, and P.J. Harvey. His song Who Will Love Me Now?, performed by P.J. Harvey, was BBC Radio 1’s top film song of 1998. His albums include Under the Eye of Heaven (Virgin Classics), recorded with the London Chamber Orchestra. The choral work Beslan/Requiem, recorded by Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort, was released in 2014 and has been performed multiple times, most recently by the Exultate Choir at St George's, Bristol. His Akathistos, a processional cantata about the Siege of Constantinople in 626 AD, premiered at St. Stephen Walbrook, London, in January 2020.
