ACCOMPLISHED is just one word to describe Dr Nicholas Ng.
Scrolling through the mere 30-year-old’s endless list of musical achievements however, “accomplished” doesn’t quite seem adequate.
Known to most as Nick – he’s a world-renowned composer, performer and researcher at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, with an early interest in all things musical.
“I became interested in music at the age of four,” Nick said.
“Apparently I asked my mother to take me to piano lessons – so she did.”
Born in Singapore, Nick’s family migrated to rural New South Wales when he was just two years old. He said they were “the only Chinese people in the area”.
By the time he was eight, the family was based in suburban Sydney.
“Years later when I finished my piano grades my high school music teachers advised me to look into composition,” Nick said.
“I later began lessons on the erhu (a two-string bowed fiddle from China) and began exploring my cultural heritage through sound and in an Australian context.
“This renewed my interest in music.”
Nick’s of “Han Chinese descent”, and his paternal grandfather fled from mainland China during the Cultural Revolution to Singapore where he met his future wife, a Chinese Indonesian.
This heritage combined with a love of music and a growing appreciation for all things Australian has spurred the composer to write pieces for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, Saitenwind, The Song Company, The Australian Voices, the United Nations Association of Australia, the Australian Choreographic Centre, the Tugpindulayaw Theatre, the Sydney-Asia Pacific Film Festival, the Art Gallery of NSW and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
On the list of Nick’s vast accolades are the Frank Albert Prize III for Music, the Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize for Composition, the Sarah Theresa Makinson Prize for Composition, the De Viana Music Prize and an Equal High Commendation from The Australian Voices Young Composer Award in 2002.
His Opium Dreaming, Poppies and Spice and Meditation on Veni Emmanuel have been broadcast on ABC Classic FM and When Mary Met Johnny Ah Long, a composition based on Celtic and Chinese folk styles, was aired on ArtSound 92.7 FM in 2003.
In 2004 Nick won third prize for his composition Where is Heaven? at the Nan Tien Temple Rhythm of the World competition at City Recital Hall, Sydney.
A year later he secured the St Christopher’s Cathedral De Viana Music Prize (ACT) and the Orpheus Publications Composition Prize (NSW).
Educated at St John Vianney primary school, Doonside, Sydney, and later at the Girraween Selective High School, Sydney, the worldly young man soon articulated a deep-seated faith.
“As a child I was extremely devout and prayed the Rosary daily, especially when my mother was ill,” Nick said.
“I remember how relieved and thankful I was when she got better.”
Influenced by his godfather “through his innate spiritual personality”, his parents, school and parish priest Fr John O’Neill, Nick attends Mass at St Luke’s, Buranda, and the Sacred Heart Centre, Runcorn, “where they say Mass in Mandarin, Cantonese and English”.
Influences in music also came into light.
“I’m influenced by Chinese culture, my interest in religion and spirituality, the Australian landscape and Australian Chinese history,” Nick said.
“I’m also inspired by Javanese, Balinese, Middle Eastern and Celtic music.”
Nick said within those influences was the reality “that although the cultures of the world are quite diverse and different we all have a lot more in common than we think”.
“While there’s much mutual learning and sharing to take place, a closer look will reveal that the sharing has already begun,” he said.
“Our job is to keep it going and what better place to do it than in Australia.”
Doing exactly that through his research and compositions, Nick recently further “explored musical connections”.
“In Australia the early Chinese often lived with the Irish,” he said.
“I’ve explored this connection musically in recent years, especially since many people have said to me that they find the sound of Irish or Scottish music quite similar to Chinese.”
Researching “Chinese Catholic and Buddhist music in contemporary Sydney” for his PhD in composition and ethnomusicology at the Australian National University in 2008, Nick “looked at how migrants adjusted to life in Australia through their respective religions and through singing sacred music.
Even the erhu’s heritage proved interesting.
“The erhu is known as a Chinese instrument,” Nick said.
“(But) it was introduced to China via Central Asia and the Silk Road from Turkey or Persia hundreds of years ago.
“I find this very interesting because Christianity first arrived in China along a similar route around 700 and then 1300 AD.”
Other noteworthy accomplishments include performances at the Sydney Opera House, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (Taipei) and the Merkin Concert Hall (New York).
“I’m periodically touring in William Yang’s Performing Lines production … and have been invited to perform at festivals such as the KunstenFestival des Arts (in Brussels), the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and the National Multicultural Festival (Canberra),” Nick said.
“Last year I appeared at the Parliament of the World’s Religions held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, with Dr Kim Cunio, Heather Lee and Tunji Beier.
“Kim, Heather and I recently presented a concert of inter-cultural and inter-faith music at the 2010 Australian Association for the Study of Religion Conference (Brisbane).”
Nick said he’s “always in the search for new performative contexts”.
“I plan to continue combining the ancient with the modern in my original works,” he said.
“I’m a firm believer in the healing properties of music and am soon to release a disc that will hopefully help people relax.
“Next year I’ll begin work on a book and disc with Dr Kim Cunio, an interfaith minister … on the religions of contemporary Australia.”
Asked if he has any spare time, Nick’s healthy lifestyle regime came into view.
“I live a busy musician’s life in the city, not far from work,” he said.
“I don’t own a car for environmental and practical reasons … so cycling has become my sole mode of transport and favourite pastime.
“I train at the gym and meditate regularly and enjoy cooking my own meals.”
Musically accomplished Nick is – and so much more.
“In the near future I plan to open an orphanage,
primarily with money made from my musical endeavours,” he said.
