PROJECT CREATOR

Nico Rhodes is a genre jumping, multilingual musician who collaborates with other artists and artforms to experience and explore music in as many styles as possible. Growing up touring around the globe surrounded by artists and the world of theatre – he is equally comfortable playing jazz, classical, funk or roots music, orchestrating a symphony, writing musicals, and conducting choirs. He begins his day with an expresso and practicing his Japanese, the language he is currently embracing.

Nico Rhodes is one of the most in demand young arranger/musical directors in Canada, with 40 stage musicals to his credit. He’s written 400 original compositions, four original musicals and arranged two symphonic pops concerts. He’s been nominated for two Jessie and five Ovation Awards and in 2019 was honoured with Nanaimo’s Emerging Cultural Leader Award. He composes for stage, screen, and media, collaborates with multiple choirs, plays with several jazz trios and tours in a duo with his mother, renowned chanteuse Joelle Rabu. In 2022 Nico created his dream show – Piano Heist and produced a series of four multi-artist multi-genre concerts entitled Chapters for The Port Theatre in Nanaimo B.C.

MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST

Patrick Courtin is first and foremost a pianist, but also he is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, music director and teacher. From his first professional gig acc1ompanying a choir at the age of 14, Patrick has been a career musician. He is classically trained (Royal Conservatory of Music) and completed grade 10 by the age of 17. He then went on to complete a Bachelor’s Degree of Music in Jazz Studies at Vancouver Island University. Since graduating in 2012, Patrick has music-directed theatre productions, played in recording sessions, created music for film+TV, and toured across Canada, the United States and China. Patrick is comfortably at home in many musical settings, having played in professional ensembles in a variety of genres from jazz and classical, to rock and funk. Patrick’s eclectic experience of musical collaboration has included accompanying silent film, opera singers, swing dancers and historical theatre productions. Patrick also regularly leads his own ensembles, and has recorded two full-length albums.

NICO RHODES

Biography

Nico has not stopped working since his first professional theatre gig as a multi-instrumentalist at the age of 17. As an accomplished musician, composer, and arranger, he has conducted more than 40 professional musical theatre productions across Canada; arranged for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, choirs, jazz groups and big band. With a portfolio of 100’s of original arrangements that span funk, to gospel, to rock, to choral and synth-pop, his composition skills have garnered him an exciting collaboration with international performers and writers in a new multi-platform musical theatre experience entitled Off the Beaten Path. Nico has received Ovation, Jessie, and SAT award nominations for his music direction of four Canadian musicals: ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ (2014), ‘Out of my Dreams’ (2015), ‘Best Laid Plans’ (2016) and ‘Talking Sex On Sunday (2020). In 2018 he was the recipient of Nanaimo’s Emerging Cultural Leader Award.