Nicole DeMaio is a Jersey City-based musician, composer, music educator, and arts administrator.
Nicole is an active composer and songwriter, creating music in a multitude of genres. Her piece “Solo for Bassoon Alone” was selected as repertoire for the 2021 Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition, and she has won the “Fifteen Minutes of Fame” and “Pictures” composition competitions. Infrasound, Yale University, The Rivers School, and numerous soloists have all commissioned her work. Nicole served as the composer and music director for “The Penelopiad,” a full-length musical awarded an Entrepreneurial Grant by The Boston Conservatory. Her single “Where I Was” was released in March 2020 and has been featured in video works by Cardboard Stage and Caroline Bagenal. Her first full album is forthcoming.
As a performer, Nicole specializes on flute, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon. In January of 2021, she performed with The Broadway Sinfonietta, an all female-identifying, majority women-of-color orchestral collective, to record “Ratatouille: The Tiktok Musical.” With a cast that included Tituss Burgess, Andrew Barth Feldman, and others performing music written by creators on the app Tiktok, the show debuted virtually as a fundraiser for The Actor’s Fund. Previously, Nicole was a member of the orchestra for the 2020 National Tour of “An American in Paris” and played in the pit for several seasons at Surflight Theatre in New Jersey. Outside of musical theatre, Nicole can often be found freelancing with various orchestras, jazz bands, and chamber ensembles. She also performs with clarinetist Bradley Frizzell as Resona Duo at various venues and private events.
Throughout her career, Nicole has taught both private lessons and in classrooms. She most recently taught 7th to 12th grade at Boston College High School, where she created new courses such as Music Makers, a class focusing on music technology, science, and instrument building.
Nicole is one of the founders and current Director of Black Sheep Contemporary Ensemble. BSCE focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration, commissioning and performing new works, and educating audiences about contemporary music. The group has been featured in The Boston Globe and has been awarded numerous grants for their endeavors. In the past, Nicole worked as Boston Civic Symphony’s Operations Manager and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Operations Assistant. She has also earned multiple certifications in grant writing and non-profit management.
Nicole graduated with a Master in Music degree in Composition from The Boston Conservatory where she studied with Marti Epstein and John Murphree, and clarinet with Michael Norsworthy. She received a Bacherlor of Music degree from Montclair State University where she double-majored in Music Education and Music Theory & Composition. She studied clarinet with Dennis Smylie and David Singer, and composition with Joshua Groffman, Scott Richards, and Patrick Burns. Currently, Nicole is enrolled in the Master in Music degree in Multiple Woodwind Performance at New Jersey City University where she studies flute, clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon with Mark Thrasher and Andrea Herr.