Nicholas Buc is an award-winning composer, conductor, and arranger with a distinguished career in both film and concert music. He studied composition under Brenton Broadstock and Dr. Stuart Greenbaum at the University of Melbourne, earning the inaugural Fellowship of Australian Composers Award. Nicholas furthered his education with a Master’s degree in Scoring for Film and Multimedia from New York University, where he was honored with the Elmer Bernstein Award for Film Scoring.
His compositions have been showcased at festivals and theaters across Australia, Asia, and the United States. In November 2022, the Melbourne Youth Orchestra premiered his Trumpet Concerto, commissioned by Josh Rogan. His 100-minute oratorio, Origins, premiered to a sold-out audience at Melbourne Recital Hall in July 2023. Recently, he scored the Australian feature film Slant (2022) and the Ukrainian documentary Slava (2023).
Nicholas has collaborated with renowned artists and ensembles, including Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Chris Botti, Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, and The Cat Empire. He has served as conductor and arranger for Tina Arena on six Australian tours and has created arrangements for Birds of Tokyo, Lake Street Dive, Missy Higgins, The Avalanches, Eskimo Joe, The Whitlams, and Vera Blue. His television work includes Junior MasterChef (2020), five seasons of The Voice Australia, and the 2021 AFL Grand Final.
Highly sought-after for live film concerts, Nicholas has conducted the world premieres of major films, including Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek 2,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and Field of Dreams.
The 2024–25 season will see the North American premiere of his children’s work, Daughter of the Inner Stars, with the Vancouver Symphony. This season also features exciting debut engagements with the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Toronto Symphony, Kansas Symphony, and Auckland Philharmonic, along with reappearances with the Seattle Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as all the Australian symphony orchestras.
