Nikolas Nackley is the Coordinator of Vocal Studies and a private vocal instructor at UC Berkeley.
Nikolas has served as a full time and visiting lecturer at universities around the greater Bay Area and is sought after as a master vocal and choral clinician and competition adjudicator. He is also currently a member of the vocal/opera and choral faculty at San Francisco State University’s School of Music where he conducts the university’s Chamber Singers ensemble, teaches lyric diction and phonetics, opera workshop, vocal pedagogy, and private vocal instruction. In the last academic year he lead SF State’s Chamber Singers in the school’s first performance the “St. Matthew Passion” by Heinrich Schütz as well as Michael Haydn’s “Missa Tempore Quadragesimae”, Stravinsky’s “Mass”, Charpentier’s “Messe Pour Minuit de Noël”, Haydn’s “Part Songs”, and the Brahms “Zigeunerlieder”. As a stage and music director of opera, he has directed and or conducted that university’s opera program in productions including Mozart’s “La Finta Giardiniera”, Strauss’s “Fledermaus”, Handel’s “Alcina”, Cavalli’s “La Calisto” and “To Hell and Back in 400 Years”, a composite “Orpheus” pastiche-opera that he arranged and directed.
From 2016-2018 Nikolas conducted the UC Berkeley University Chorus in performances including Britten’s “Gloriana Choral Dances”, Purcell’s “Come, Ye Sons of Art”, Charpentier’s “Messe de Morts”, De Lalande’s “De Profundis Clamavit”, the Berlioz “Apotheose from Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale”, and Fauré’s “Requiem”, the Vivaldi “Gloria”, Pärt’s “Two Slavic Psalms” and Bernstien’s “Chichester Psalms” in collaboration with ensembles including UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Contra Costa Wind Symphony, and the Jubilate Orchestra. In addition, he led a joint concert of songs of protest, resistance, and praise from around the world performed with the University Gospel Chorus.
As a solo vocal artist, Nikolas is in demand for his work on both the concert and operatic stage in California, the East Coast, and abroad. He has been heralded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “sonorous and heroic” and praised by the Boston Globe for his ability to “continually impress with his beautiful voice and acting.” Recently featured in the title role of West Edge Opera’s critically acclaimed “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”, his other recent credits include the role of Captain Bouchardon in the West Coast premier of “Mata Hari”, Joe Pitt in Peter Eötvös’s West Coast premier of “Angels in America” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Adonis in Blow’s “Venus and Adonis” with Marin Baroque, Bach’s St. John Passion, Cantata BWV 140 and Handel’s “Ode for the Birth of Queen Anne” with the SF Bach Choir, Figaro in Paisiello’s “Barber of Seville” with WEO’s Opera Medium Rare, Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” with Marin Oratorio, the West Coast premier of Kaija Saariaho’s “The Tempest Songbook” with Cal Performances and a recital series in New Castle, England.
He has worked as a featured soloist under such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Joana Carneiro, Bruno Weil, Craig Smith, Harry Christophers, John Harbison, and Pablo Heras Casado.
Other recent engagements include the world premier of Stacy Garrop’s “Terra Nostra” with the SF Choral Society, Bach’s “St John Passion”, “Carmina Burana” and Mozart’s “Requiem”with the Bay Choral Guild, the role of Pallante in Handel’s “Agrippina” and the Badger/Parson in Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” with West Edge Opera, the West Coast premiere of Jocelyn Hagen’s “Ashes of Roses” with Symphony Silicone Valley, Haydn’s “Paulkenmesse” and the Duruflé “Requiem” with the Southern Oregon Repertory Singers.