University of Oklahoma doctoral piano candidate Nicole Biggs will be performing at 8PM, Friday, Nov. 13 in Sharp Music Hall (in Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd, Norman). Her program includes Mozart’s Fantasy in C Minor, K. 475, Debussy’s Images (1905), Howard Ferguson’s Five Bagatelles Op. 9, and Brahms’ 25 Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24. Admission is free to hear this outstanding performer. Learn more about Mrs. Biggs below:
Nicole Biggs made her Carnegie Hall debut in the Weill Recital Hall in 2006. She has since performed in China, Italy, England, and throughout the United States. Some of her notable performances this year include solo performances at the Oklahoma Music Teacher’s Association State Conference in Tulsa, the Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival in Oxford, England, the Assembly Hall in Historic Temple Square in Salt Lake City. She also performed the Tchaikovsky B-flat Piano Concerto with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra in the Civic Music Hall.
A winner in several international piano competitions, Nicole has won prizes in the IBLA Grand Prize International Piano Competition in Ragusa, Sicily, the Joyce Dutka Multi-Instrumental Competition, and the Bradshaw and Buono International Competition in New York. She has received special awards from the universities she has attended, receiving a special certificate of achievement in 2006 from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she completed a Masters Degree in piano performance, and as a sophmore at the University of North Texas she received the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Music Award. Nicole has performed in master classes with Gary Graffman, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, Nelita True, Abbey Simon, and Fernando Laires, among others. Her previous teachers include Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Emanuella Friscioni, and James Giles, and currently studies with Dr. Jeongwon Ham at the University of Oklahoma where Nicole is pursuing a doctoral degree in piano performance and pedagogy.