From recording with the London Symphony Orchestra to Number 1 selling Pop Stars Mika and Chesney Hawkes, Chris Nicolaides can comfortably work in many genres. Now best known for his scores to landmark BBC Television series with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman, Fiona Bruce and Francesco Da Mosto, Chris decided to re-record many of the themes from these series with full symphony orchestra.
The first albums “Revealing Beauty” and “Revealing Drama” were immediately signed by EMI/Sony in 2015. A montage of the album can be seen/heard here. EMI/Sony then asked Chris to contribute 4 tracks for their “Action Hero” album, released in 2017.
The same year, he chose to re-record his favourite adventure themes from these BBC series and self released the album “Revealing Destiny”. Seventeen tracks were subsequently signed to West One Music with the album title “World of Discovery” and the remainder were then signed to library “Lovely Music” as part of two albums of Chris’ work – “Orchestral TV Themes” and “Orchestral Drama Scores”. Please click here to see a montage featuring the Bulgarian concert orchestra
In contrast to these, “Lovely Music” also signed another full album titled “Mediterranean Sunshine” featuring themes from the BBC series “Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage”, “Paris” and “Shakespeare in Italy”.
Tracks from the albums have been used in TV shows, trailers and adverts all over the world, and “Sail on a Sunset” from “Revealing Beauty” was also used in the most successful Russian film in history.
2017 movie “Three Seconds” (Russian title “Going Vertical”), the true story of Russia beating the USA in basketball during the 1972 Munich Olympics, grossed over $66 Million at the box office. In 2018, Chris was asked to contribute to the major BBC/PBS series “Civilisations” and in 2019, he was commissioned to score the BBC/PBS series “Inside the Vatican”. Filmed over a historic year, “Inside The Vatican” had unprecedented access to the inner workings of one of the most important places in the Christian world.
In December 2025, Chris completed the score for the major BBC series written & presented by David Dimbleby – “What’s the Monarchy For”. Episode 1 was broadcast on BBC1 at 9pm on 2nd December. Please click here to see/hear a montage of music from the series.
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. Other 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.
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 home studio, and is able to create music in a variety of styles.