The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) and the SOCAN Foundation recently announced the appointment of Nicholas Denton Protsack as the 2025 Emerging Composer in Residence.
A cellist and composer, the role will be something of a homecoming for Protsack, who performed and toured with NYO Canada in 2011 as a teenager, and as it turns out, caught the first spark of his passion for composing.
NYO Canada’s CEO Christie Gray said in a statement, “We are excited to have Nicholas join the NYO Canada fold again in this new capacity. His development from participant musician to commissioned composer is the perfect reflection of our purpose of promoting Canada’s musical talent through their artistic careers.”
A native of Kelowna, BC, Nicholas Denton Protsack earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and recently completed his PhD at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
The award-winning composer and cellist’s work is ecologically inspired, and often features notated as well as recorded media, and experimental improvisation. His compositions have been performed in North America, Europe, and in New Zealand. Commissioned works include pieces for New Zealand’s Stroma Ensemble, Toronto Summer Music, and American Prize-winning Ensemble for These Times. In 2023, he won both first and second prizes in the SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards, and in 2021, took home a BMI Foundation Student Composer Award for a piece for cello and electronic media which he composed, performed and recorded.
As a musician, Nicholas tends to work within the field of chamber music, and he is a founding member of Moth Quartet in New Zealand, and Canadian-based groups Branchroot Ensemble and Sounds Like Things. He has also performed as a soloist with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra. He is the founder and artistic director of Whatnot Records, an independent music label.
When did you decide to become a composer? Was it always part of your intentions when it comes to music?
Although I began my musical journey with cello and piano lessons, composing was always something I partook in alongside my studies. It began as a hobby, but by the time I was halfway through my undergrad, I realized it had become a rather all-consuming hobby. After putting in some serious thought, I concluded that I couldn’t imagine a career in music without composing taking a front seat.
What impact did playing with the NYOC have on your early career?
My first residency with NYO Canada actually played a major role in developing my interest in composition. During that summer (it was 2011), I was exposed to many new works of music, musical perspectives, and new information about the other instruments of the orchestra. Interestingly, every time I was exposed to something new from a faculty member or peer, my first thought was usually about how I could apply that idea to my own, original music.
It’s funny reflecting on this and wondering why I didn’t commit to being a composer when I was still in my teens!
Another very important takeaway from the experience was of course the friendships and connections I made with my peers — many of which have continued to this day. For instance, in 2021, I co-founded the ClassicalValley Chamber Magic Festival in the Okanagan Valley with Cameron Crozman, who I met during my second year with NYO Canada.
How might the experience (of being a former NYOC member) influence how you compose for the ensemble?
I think it has definitely given me some insider knowledge about the capabilities of the orchestra. Writing for a typical youth orchestra requires a fair amount of strategic thinking, as the inexperience of the players can affect their ability to execute more complex musical ideas.
NYO Canada, however, is an uncharacteristically strong youth orchestra, as its members often go on to be some of Canada’s top professional musicians. Additionally, the programming often includes some of the most challenging standard orchestral repertoire out there — repertoire that requires a great deal of personal practice. So a similar ethos is often applied to the commissioned work.
It’s a real privilege to write something I know will receive such detailed and committed attention from such a talented group of young artists.
Your work is described as being ecologically inspired. How does that influence the music you write?
This is a slightly difficult question to briefly summarize. There are many ways in which my work creatively draws upon aspects of the natural world; I actually just completed a dissertation on this very topic!
Speaking generally, however, there is a whole world of creativity that exists beyond simply mimicking sounds from nature: melodic contour and harmony can be used to imitate the shapes and colours of landscapes, scientific data from the natural world can be easily mapped onto musical notation, field recordings and even real-life sounds or materials directly from nature can be incorporated into musical practices. The possibilities are limitless, really.
The bottom line of this for me, however, is that I view many elements of music as being fundamentally ecological, and even many elements of ecology as fundamentally musical; accordingly, the goal of my language as an artist has often been to accentuate those features so that anyone can perceive and experience them.
What can you tell us about the piece the NYOC will premiere this summer?
Without giving everything away, it is a work that will be inspired by atmospheric phenomena, the night sky, and what can be found in the mysterious, liminal environment between earth and what lies beyond.
I see this as a metaphor for the many ways in which human thinking has needed to adapt and strive towards new and unexplored territory as technology, AI, and communication have begun to rapidly expand in scope.
Paradoxically, I also see the subject matter of the night sky as touching upon an ancient sense of wonder that humans have always possessed about who we are and what lies beyond our world. In many ways I see this as a unifying feature that shines through in times of uncertainty; while every place on earth has its own stars and atmospheric characteristics, there will always be at least some shared features no matter where you go.
The National Youth Orchestra of Canada Chamberfest takes place from June 15 to 29, followed by the Orchestral Institute from June 30 to July 17 this summer. After that, they hit the road, and audiences will be able to hear Nicholas Denton Protsack’s commissioned work, along with other repertoire, on their 2025 Tour, taking the orchestra from Toronto to Victoria from July 18 to August 3.
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