Bio

Paul Nicolaou is an award-winning harpist and composer based in Sydney, Australia. Praised as “brilliant” (classikON), he has quickly gained international recognition as a creative and virtuosic young artist, receiving numerous accolades including First Prize in the 2023 National Youth Music Arranging Competition, the 2024 ABC Classic Composer Commissioning Fund, 2021 Monash University Emerging Composer Prize, Most Outstanding Performer Award at the 2022 Sydney Harp Eisteddfod and was a winner of the 2022 Artology ‘Fanfare’ Competition. He was also a finalist in the 2025 APRA Professional Development Awards under the Screen Composition category, and received the Highly Commended Award in Willoughby Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 Young Composer Competition.

Currently an Honours student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Paul studies under the tutelage of internationally celebrated harpist Alice Giles AM. He has quickly established himself as an accomplished, versatile and sought-after performer, appearing as Guest Principal Harp with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia, as well as Omega Ensemble, Ensemble Apex and more. He is also a freelance harpist with the Opera Australia Orchestra who he will perform with in 2025. He has previously participated in ten Australian Youth Orchestra performance programs, eight of which as a principal musician. Additionally, Paul was a featured artist at the 2024 and 2025 Orange Chamber Music Festivals and a Dots+Loops Performance Fellow for 2024.

Paul has participated in several notable competitive composition programs including the Australian Youth Orchestra’s 2022 Composition Program and the 2023 Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra Composer Workshop. His work has been widely acclaimed, the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, noting it “stood out as an exceptional example of both compositional craft and musicality”. Paul also has experience composing for the screen, his original score for the short film ‘Yannis’ receiving a nomination for Best Original Score (Made in the West Film Festival).

Paul’s works have been performed by both notable emerging and established artists such as Sydney Youth Orchestras, the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra, Leichhardt Espresso Chorus, Caesura Ensemble, and musicians of the Sydney Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, Queensland Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Paul has been privileged to perform at prestigious venues as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician, including the Sydney Opera House, St Peter’s Basilica (Vatican City), ACO’s The Neilson (Pier 2/3), Hamer Hall Melbourne and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). He has given world premieres of works by internationally recognised composers such as Nigel Westlake, Elena Kats-Chernin, Andrew Ford and Alice Chance; and has participated in masterclasses and lessons with some of the world’s foremost harpists including Anneleen Lenaerts (Principal Harp, Vienna Philharmonic), Alexander Boldachev (International soloist) and Mariko Anraku (Associate Principal Harp, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra).

Paul is also an experienced pianist, violinist, an accredited music arranger with the Music Arrangers' Guild of Australia and Australian Music Centre Associate Artist. He also has a strong interest in music for interactive media such as games, which he spends time analysing, arranging, and performing.