Nicholas Lindell studied both violin and viola under Michael Heald and Maggie Snyder at the University of Georgia and is presently a DMA candidate at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under Ivo-Jan van der Werff, where he also taught music theory for five semesters. He served as principal violist and soloist at the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge in 2021 and frequently performs with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Houston Ballet.
Nicholas is a four-time finalist in UGA’s Concerto Competition on both violin and viola and was UGA’s Presser Foundation Scholar in 2017. In 2023 he received Rice’s Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship for outstanding achievement and promise, one of only five graduate students campus-wide. The American Viola Society invited him as an Emerging Artist to present a lecture recital at the society’s 2024 Festival in Los Angeles, CA, and again at the 2026 Festival in Harrisonburg, VA.
A man of many hats, Nicholas is also quite passionate about jazz and folk music, and he loves composing, arranging, and performing cross-genre styles. He picked up the Celtic fiddle tradition while training as a competitive Irish dancer and has fiddled and recorded with several bands. His DMA document (forthcoming) investigates causal links between various scordatura systems, kinesthetic convenience, and modal patterns in folk fiddle repertoire.
In parallel with all this music, he is a published mathematician, spent a summer researching classified cryptographic problems for the National Security Agency, and even earned a graduate degree in mathematics with a thesis on mathematical music theory. He has held deep a passion for maths competitions since high school and has twice scored in the top 15% of students nationally on the notoriously difficult William Lowell Putnam Exam.
When not playing his instruments, analyzing music, teaching mathematics, or researching, Nicholas loves bicycling, frisbee, soccer, and tennis.
Short 150 Word Version
Nicholas Lindell studied both violin and viola under Michael Heald and Maggie Snyder at the University of Georgia and is presently a DMA candidate at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University under Ivo-Jan van der Werff. He regularly plays with Houston’s Symphony, Grand Opera, and Ballet orchestras. The American Viola Society invited him as an Emerging Lecturer for both of the society’s 2024 and 2026 AVS Festivals.
Nicholas is also quite passionate about jazz and folk music, and he loves composing, arranging, and performing cross-genre styles. He researches Celtic, bluegrass, and Scandinavian fiddle traditions and has recorded with several bands. He also studied classified cryptographic problems for the NSA and earned a graduate degree in mathematics with a thesis on mathematical music theory. When not playing his instruments or teaching music theory, Nicholas loves bicycling, frisbee, soccer, and tennis.