Nicholas Fairbank’s life is filled with music.

His earliest recollections include being roused from sleep by chamber music climbing the stairs from the living room below where his parents and their friends played Haydn string quartets. He recalls his entire family of six singing in the choir of a small church in Vancouver. “Sometimes our family was the choir,” he smiles.

Photo by Mary E. Coakley

While a career in music wasn’t an early choice for Nick, by the time he was eighteen, he had become organist and choir director in that same little church. His love of music kept drawing him back into musical studies, employment, and engagement and what followed was advanced instruction in piano, pipe organ and composition in Vancouver, Santa Barbara, London, Paris and Victoria with residencies in Svalbard and Peru. His resume includes performance awards and glowing reviews of his compositions that now number nearly 100 works, written for voice, piano and organ, and various choral and instrumental ensembles. His poise in a wide variety of musical genres speaks to Nick’s innate musicality.

He has been an instructor, adjudicator, and conductor and has performed across Canada, in Europe, and in Mexico. In 2014, Nick was approached by Norman Nelson who asked if Nick would take over as director of the chorus of the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra. Nick welcomed the opportunity, knowing it would allow him to work closely with an orchestra in addition to leading a choral group.

Nick realized at an early age how much he enjoys teaching. “I like passing my understanding of a subject along to others, getting them interested, too”. His skills in teaching, and love of it, are an obvious benefit when instructing student, but are equally evident as he works with his chorus singers, developing in them a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the work they are performing.