Biography

Nicole Lizée was born in 1973 in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. In 1995 she received a Bachelor of Music degree from Brandon University where she majored in piano and composition. In 2001 she received a Master of Music degree in composition from McGill University in Montreal where she studied with Denys Bouliane and John Rea. Her Masters thesis consisted of a work for large ensemble and solo turntablist that featured turntable techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting. Along with turntables, she has written for other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, Simon and Merlin hand held games, and karaoke tapes.

Nicole has received commissions from several artists and ensembles including l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Kronos Quartet, CBC, the Kaufman Center/Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Transmission, So Percussion, Arraymusic, Ensemble Kore, Soundstreams, McGill Chamber Orchestra, Standing Wave, Continuum, Bradyworks, Brigitte Poulin, Megumi Masaki, Ben Reimer, Motion Ensemble, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Toca Loca and l’Association des Orchestres de Jeunes du Québec. Her works have been performed in festivals including the MATA Festival (NYC), Winnipeg New Music Festival (Canada), Huddersfield (UK), X Avant (Canada), Open Ears (Canada), Ecstatic (NYC), and C3 (Berlin).

In 2010 Nicole was awarded a fellowship from the prestigious Civitella Ranieri Foundation based in New York City and Italy. She has twice been named a finalist for the Jules-Léger Prize, most recently in 2007 for the work This Will Not Be Televised, scored for chamber ensemble and turntables. This work was selected as a top ten recommended work at the 2008 International Rostrum of Composers in Dublin. Her 2002 work Left Brain/Right Brain was chosen to represent Canada at the ISCM World Music Days in Germany. In 2002 she was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Robert Fleming Prize, and in 2004 she was nominated for an Opus Prize.