The internationally acclaimed performer, teacher, clinician and adjudicator, Dutch-born Hans Nickel(1958), recently retired from his position as solo tuba with the German WDR Symphony Orchestra, a position which he held from 1986, recorded by the press as ‘a legend retires’.
As a performer Nickel has been invited to premiere works by respected contemporary composers including Stockhausen, Bedrich, Gregson, Van der Roost, Adler-McKean and Hamers. In 2024 he gave the German premiere of ‘Reflections on the Mississippi’ for Tuba and Orchestra by Michael Daugherty in a live stream performance from Cologne with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. He won the hightly esteemed ‘European Soloist of the Year’ prize twice at the EBBC in Rotterdam and Cardiff.
His many solo CD recordings include ‘canTUBAllada'(considered ‘essential listening’ by the Sunday Times),’Tuba Obsessions’, ‘In Freundschaft’, ‘aus den leopardi-zyklus’ and Bernstein’s ‘Mippy’. During the Corona pandemic Nickel turned more to social media and easy-listening music. Thus the ‘Hans Nickel plays… ‘series was created by the WDR with popular classics re-arranged for tuba and chamber orchestra. The first of the eight recordings in this series reached over one million people earning him the comment ‘The Tuba becomes a digital star … ‘-all these recordings can be viewed on YouTube.
As a popular teacher Hans Nickel taught at the Hochschule fUr Musik und Tanz in Cologne, the Robert Schumann Hochschule in DUsseldorf and the Conservatorium in Maastricht. He also taught the low brass of the German Bundeswehr in their pre-university programme for many years. Nickel regularly teaches worldwide and can now enjoy seeing his former students holding positions in the world’s top orchestras including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Radio Orchestra Athens, Opera Marseille, the Seoul Symphony Orchestra and Xi’an Symphony Orchestra. Some have become dedicated teachers themselves and teach at renowned institutes and some have become successful conductors – Joost Smeets and David Daubenfeld for example- whilst others such as Thomas Leleu enjoy a world wide reputation as a performer.
Nickel enjoys working as a chamber musician and has performed with the Belgian Brass Soloists, the Asko Ensemble, Ensemble Modern and many others. In 2008 he formed Brass Consort Koln with his orchestral brass colleagues, who went on to create the project ‘Das Blech Kommt’ which was adopted by the WDR as an educational project throughout NRW. The BCK have been popular musicians in the WDR ‘Maus’ series and produced a YouTube film in 2025 ‘First Aid With The Mouse’ with which they went on an educational tour.
2025 was a busy year with participation in ThaiTEC 2025, LizBrass ’25(Leiria Brass Festival), 2025 Wuhan Low Brass Festival,in Valencia at the VII Tuba/Lombardi Event he premiered a new arrangement of Philip Spark’s ‘Concerto for Tuba’ with brass ensemble. He went on to perform the same piece with in an Fanfare arrangement in Gelderland. He also premiered an arrangement of Michael Forbes’ ‘Alpine Concerto’ for Fanfare, interestingly at the final conductor’s exam of one of his former tuba students Xavier Kuipers, now conductor, in the Netherlands. Nickel took the opportunity of performing with a multitude of symphony orchestras including NOR, the Brussels Philharmonic and his former orchestra WDR.
2026 has been an equally busy and exciting one thus far was invited for the first time to join the jury at the prestigious Internationaler Instrumentalwettbewerb Markneukirchen (Markneukirchen International Instrumental Competition) in its 61st.edition. In the summer he was a soloist at the World Music Contest in Kerkrade (NL)performing the piece ‘Chameleon’ by Maurice Hamers which was written for him for the European events for brass band, and now in a Fanfare arrangement by the composer himself, with the Fanfare St Cecilia, Schinnen. In December he will premiere a work by Julio Domingo ‘Scars’, for solo tuba and wind orchestra in Aachen Germany. Again he has guested with many symphony orchestras.
In 2027 he will attend The Leonard Falcone International Euphonium & Tuba Festival as Guest Tuba Artist.
In other words ‘retirement’ has merely meant a slight change in direction …
Professor Hans Nickel -proud to perform on instruments ‘Made by ADAMS’
