Biography
Nicholas Freestone is currently a music student at the University of Oxford, where he is also Junior Organ Scholar of Worcester College. This role involves training the boy choristers of Worcester College, who are all day pupils at Christ Church Cathedral School, alongside accompanying and directing the Worcester College Boys and Mixed Choirs for chapel services, under the guidance of Stephen Farr, Director of Chapel Music.
Nicholas was Organ Scholar of Tewkesbury Abbey and Dean Close School, Cheltenham between September 2010 and July 2011, where he assisted in the directing and accompanying of the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum and the Tewkesbury Abbey Choir, alongside working in the music department at Dean Close School. Prior to this, Nicholas was a music scholar and organ scholar at Ipswich School and St Mary le Tower Civic Church, Ipswich.
As a French Horn player, Nicholas has been a member of many ensembles, including the Suffolk Youth Wind Band and the Suffolk Youth Orchestra, with whom he enjoyed five European tours; and Ipswich School’s Horn Trio, which reached the final competitive stage of the Pro Corda chamber music competition in 2010.
Nicholas also enjoys composing and currently studies with Robert Saxton. He was a winner in the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Groove Search competition, having his piece recorded at Abbey Road Studios in January 2007. He was also a winner of the 2009 HMC Schools’ Young Composer Competition and his anthem, This Lowly Ground, was premièred at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral in October 2009. It has since been performed at Salisbury and Winchester Cathedrals by Ipswich School Chapel Choir. Nicholas’ anthem Arise, shine was performed by the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum in Tewkesbury Abbey in June 2011.