Full Biography

Nicholas Ma is a pianist-composer whose music explores a dialogue between rhythmic vitality, playfulness, and contemplative rigor. Some of his recent accolades include two SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Awards, McGill’s Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Competition Prize, commissions from Esprit Orchestra and the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, and composer-in-residence positions with McGill's Schulich Singers, Chamber Music Area, and Saxophone Quartet.

He is the current President of the McGill Association of Student Composers, is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Composers Orchestra, and was the composer for the 2022/23 Music Monday program—an event where his commissioned work was sung by hundreds of thousands of children and youth in schools and communities across Canada. Additionally, he has served on the Vivier InterUniversitaire Committee, the NextGen Advisory Council, as a Composition Area Representative for the McGill Music Graduate Students' Society, and co-founded the Off-Topic Ensemble’s Mentorship Program in 2024.

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Nicholas has participated in programs such as 2025 Opera from Scratch (Janice Jackson, James Rolfe), 2024 Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra’s New Generations Film Composer Program (Charles Finlay, Bruno Degazio), 2023 Domaine Forget: New Music Composition (Julian Anderson, Laurie Radford), 2023 Salastina Composer Collective, (Derrick Skye), and the 2022 Canadian Composers Orchestra’s Digital Generations Program (Andrew James Clark, Tyler Versluis, Maria-Eduarda Mendes Martins). His work has also been selected for masterclasses with performer-mentors such as Claude Delangle and Jean-Marc Bouchard. As a part of Tuckamore Festival’s 2025 Young Artist Program (Jason Noble), he was also interviewed on CBC Weekend AM Radio.

His string quartet Three Dances was the winner of the Kiwanis Music Festival of Guelph’s 2nd Oscar Bookbinder Composition Competition - Ensemble Class. He also received SOCAN Young Composer Awards for his works Human Touch (3rd Place Choral Prize) and Music is Our Medicine (Under 21 Choral Prize), with the former also being published on Cypress Choral Music as a part of Jean-Sébastien Vallée’s curated series. He has been a Sound Designer in the McGameJam 48-hour Game Development Marathon, which received 2nd Place Prize in the competition.

A young man wearing glasses, a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, sitting in front of a microphone, speaking or presenting, with a brown curtain in the background.

Starting piano at the age of 4, Nicholas has also obtained the ATCL Diploma with the highest accolade, Distinction, from Trinity College London. Some recent performances include an hour long solo recital on works by Bach, Schubert, Debussy, and Scriabin at the Oasis Musicale Concert Series, his own work involving amplified piano and delay pedal during the McGill Association of Student Composer Concerts Concerts, and chamber works during recording sessions or the Le Pub Classique Concert series. Apart from teaching private piano lessons, he has also done volunteer piano teaching for programs such as the Montréal Heart of the City Piano Program and the School of Music Montréal program.

Nicholas holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University, where he double-majored in Piano Performance and Composition with a minor in Music Theory. His primary teachers include Marina Mdivani for piano and Eliot Britton, Jean Lesage, Chris Paul Harman, and Melissa Hui for composition. He has also studied introductory conducting with Mélanie Léonard and both modal and tonal counterpoint with Peter Schubert and Nicole Biamonte. Nicholas is currently pursuing a Master’s in Composition at McGill with a full scholarship from the university.

His current Master’s research into musical ideas of play, whimsy, and fun against contemplative rigor have resulted in additional funding awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (2025) and Fonds de recherche du Québec (2025). At McGill, he has also received the Sara Berlind Memorial Fellowship (2024), Graduate Excellence Award (2024), Constance Willey Prize (2023), Frank Mills Music Scholarship (2023), Luba Zuk Scholarship in Piano Performance (2023), Vladimir J. Elgart Award (2022, 2023), Anna Paull Gertler Scholarship (2020, 2022), Paul-Marcel Gélinas et Verna-Marie Parr Gélinas Piano Award (2021), Sir William Peterson Memorial Scholarship (2021), and the J.W. McConnell Scholarships (2019). He was also under the Dean’s Honor List and received an Outstanding Achievement in Composition upon completion of his undergraduate studies. Apart from being the President of the McGill Association of Student Composers, he has also previously been MASC’s Vice-President and has been on its Concert Committee as a Co-Chair for numerous years, in charge of organizing concerts with works from peers.


Nicholas also runs a YouTube channel under his name “Nicholas Ma” that has 29,000+ subscribers, where he posts about music, composition, and education.

A young man in a black suit and glasses sitting at a piano with his hands clasped, facing forward against a plain white background.

  • Nicholas Ma is a pianist-composer whose music explores a dialogue between rhythmic vitality, playfulness, and contemplative rigor. Some of his recent accolades include two SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Awards, McGill’s Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Competition Prize, commissions from Esprit Orchestra and the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, and composer-in-residence positions with McGill's Schulich Singers, Chamber Music Area, and Saxophone Quartet.

    Some of his other activities include being the current President of the McGill Association of Student Composers, co-founding the Off-Topic Ensemble’s Mentorship Program, and being the composer for the 2022/23 Music Monday program—an event where his commissioned work was sung by hundreds of thousands of children and youth in schools and communities across Canada. Additionally, he serves on the Vivier InterUniversitaire Committee, the NextGen Advisory Council, as a Composition Area Representative for the McGill Music Graduate Students' Society, and is on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Composers Orchestra.

    Nicholas holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University, where he double-majored in Piano Performance and Composition with a minor in Music Theory. His primary teachers include Marina Mdivani for piano and Eliot Britton, Jean Lesage, Chris Paul Harman, and Melissa Hui for composition. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Composition at McGill with a full scholarship.

  • Nicholas Ma is a pianist-composer whose music explores a dialogue between rhythmic vitality, playfulness, and contemplative rigor. Some of his recent accolades include two SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Awards, McGill’s Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Competition Prize, commissions from Esprit Orchestra and the Coalition for Music Education in Canada, and a composer-in-residence position with McGill's Schulich Singers. Nicholas holds a Bachelor’s degree from McGill University, where he double-majored in Piano Performance and Composition with a minor in Music Theory. He is currently pursuing a Master’s in Composition at McGill with a full scholarship.