Composer/producer Chris Nicolaides is a classically trained pianist and violinist who has been creating music for both television and recording artists since 1990 and is comfortable working in many genres from pop to orchestral.

 

2013/14 included scoring two BBC1 Landmark series – The first, Britain and the Sea,  was first broadcast in November/December 2013 on BBC1 and is presented by David Dimbleby. The second, Britain’s Great War, was first broadcast from late January 2014, is presented by Jeremy Paxman and focuses on the drama of  WW1. This series launched the BBC’s programmes for the WW1 centenary. Recent work includes Schama on Rembrandt – Masterpieces of the Late Years, The Art of Gothic: Britain’s Midnight Hour, Dan Cruickshank: Resurrecting History, and The Art of France for the BBC.

 

On 20th September 2019, Episode one of the BBC series “Inside the Vatican” was broadcast on BBC2 to excellent reviews and ratings.

 

1st March 2018 saw the broadcast of Episode 1 of the landmark 9 part BBC series “Civilisations”. While Chris was not originally commissioned to score the series, he was brought in to provide additional music. The series opened to rave reviews and will be broadcast globally this year. You can hear a montage of a selection of the music from the series here.

 

In early 2015 Chris finally completed work on the live orchestral album “Revealing Beauty” which has not only received critical acclaim, but was instantly signed by EMI. The album forms part of the EMI Production Music catalogue as well as being commercially available through this website and iTunes/Amazon. It features new arrangements of themes from several BBC series including The Queen’s Palaces, Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage, Seven Ages of Britain, Shakespeare in Italy, The Manor Reborn, and Empire. A montage of the album can be seen/heard here.

 

“Sail on a Sunset” from the “Revealing Beauty” album was used in the most successful Russian film of all time! Yes, multi award winning 2017 Russian film “Three Seconds” (“Going Vertical”) which took over $66,000,000 at the box office uses the piece for the ‘love’ interest in the movie.

 

Chris has now completed the sequel, an adventure themed album titled “Revealing Destiny”, once again based on themes from several BBC series. Please click here to see a montage featuring the Bulgarian concert orchestra. The album was signed to West One Music and released under the title “World of Discovery” as part of their production music catalogue.

 

In 2011/12 work included the five-part BBC1 Landmark series, Empire, presented by Jeremy Paxman, Shakespeare in Italy with Francesco Da Mosto, and The Queen’s Palaces, a three-part series presented by Fiona Bruce. In 2010 another landmark series, David Dimbleby’s Seven Ages of Britain, aired on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC HD to over five million viewers. This broke the audience record for a BBC Arts series, which was previously held by the four-part BBC1 series THE VICTORIANS– Their Story in Pictures, presented by Jeremy Paxman and also scored by Chris. Requests from the public for a soundtrack release of these series have been astonishing, as was the case for the popular 12-part BBC series, Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage (broadcast in July/August, 2008 on BBC1, BBC2 and BBC HD). Following their success on DVD, Chris chose to create the aforementioned live orchestral albums.

 

In September 2014, talented soprano Rebecca Newman’s new album went straight into the classical charts at Number 1! The album features two co-writes, “Dare to Dream” – the title track, and “Heroes to the World” . It was recorded with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of legendary orchestrator/conductor Paul Bateman who orchestrated and conducted “Time to Say Goodbye” for Sarah Brightman.

 

August 2009 saw the start of the BBC2 series Saving Britain’s Past for which Chris composed the title music. Other recent BBC programmes featuring music by Chris include: How do you Solve a problem like Lolita?; Lost – The Mystery of Flight 447; Victoria: A Royal Love Story; The Private Life of an Easter Masterpiece; Gods & Monsters: Homer’s Odyssey; Treasures of the Anglo Saxons; Film 2010 and Springwatch. The Hollywood movie Tru Loved (2008) also featured Chris’s work.

 

In 2008, Chris Nicolaides completed the scoring for the eight-part BBC series, Dan Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture, having previously composed for the highly acclaimed BBC drama The Impressionists – the true story of the French painters – starring Julian Glover, which has now been sold by BBC Worldwide to over 100 countries.

 

Recent high-profile pop projects include recording credits on the Number One debut album Life in Cartoon Motion by Mika; production on tracks by chart-topping artist Chesney Hawkes; and production/composition with singer Mozez (from multi-million selling group Zero-7) for a forthcoming album. Mika returned to Chris’s studio to record tracks for his second album The Boy Who Knew Too Much on which Chris also contributed backing vocals!

 

For film, Chris was asked to contribute to the score of the highly successful Miramax movie The Importance of Being Earnest starring Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett & Dame Judy Dench and after scoring a three-part BBC documentary, Paris in 2007, Chris was commissioned to compose two symphonic pieces of music for LEXUS cars, recorded by the world famous London Symphony Orchestra at AIR studios. These works were uniquely ‘performed’ by twelve Lexus LS460 cars (The Lexus Symphony Orchestra!) at various live classical concerts around the UK in the summer of 2007. (Click here to see the documentary on the creation of this unusual performance.)

 

Chris continues his writing/production with various artists in his West London studio, and is able to create music in a variety of styles.