Most recently, Nicholas was recognized by The Solti Foundation U.S. who awarded him the prestigious Career Assistance Award for young conductors in 2023. December of 2022, he was selected from a pool of over 300 world-wide applicants to be an active conductor of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, Italy that culminated in a performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. In addition to assisting a number of notable conductors such as Donald Runnicles, Peter Oundjian, Fabien Gabel, Rune Bergmann, and Marin Alsop, Nicholas has also worked alongside soloists including Emanuel Ax, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Joyce Yang, and the Royal Concertgebouw’s own Jörgen van Rijen.

He holds both masters and doctoral degrees in conducting from Northwestern University as the final student of pedagogue Victor Yampolsky, where his dissertation work resulted in a U.S. premiere of a new arrangement of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.