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Home Podcast Music Director Bill Hemminger Biography Photos Videos Articles and Reviews Radio Broadcast Schedule History of the EPO Mission and Values Board of Directors 2025-2026 Sponsors 2025-2026 Philharmonic Gives Back Donors 8/21/2024- 8/21/2025 Thoughtful Tributes 8/21/2024 - 8/21/2025
Robert Nicholls
Organ

Robert Nicholls was born in Cambridge, England, to a British farmer and American mother from Carmi, Illinois, and grew up in rural Cambridgeshire. At the age of eight he joined the Choir of Westminster Abbey in London under the direction of Simon Preston. Robert graduated from Oundle School and Cambridge University. He sang in the choirs of Gonville and Caius and St. John’s Colleges in Cambridge and was appointed Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Evansville, Indiana, in 1996 where he oversees an extensive program of music education, concerts, and special events, in addition to leading worship from the church’s fine collection of keyboard instruments and organs. The Choir School of First Presbyterian Church continues to flourish.

Robert has served as a conductor and organist for RSCM America Summer Choral Residencies and is the current manager of the Midwest Residency located in Evansville. His compositions for both organ and choir have been performed and broadcast in both the US and Europe, and at RSCM America events. Robert is honored to have been invited to be the conductor of the RSCM America National Choir in 2024-2025.

Robert won first place at the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2012 and has accompanied a wide range of silent films including Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera, The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Faust, Metropolis, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger, in addition to numerous comedy shorts.

As a member of the Evansville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he has served as Dean and has chaired special projects including the 2009 Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced, the 2015 William Bolcom Commission of Fantasia for Organ and Brass Quintet premiered in Evansville with Dr. Douglas Reed and the American Brass Quintet, and the 2018 restoration (in memory of Helen Skuggedal Reed) by Taylor and Boody Organbuilders of the historic Edmund Giesecke organ made in Evansville in 1889.

Robert is married to Emma Nicholls, PhD, a pediatric Clinical Psychologist at Easterseals. They are proud parents of Elena (20) and William (18).

Robert Nicholls
Organ

Robert Nicholls was born in Cambridge, England, to a British farmer and American mother from Carmi, Illinois, and grew up in rural Cambridgeshire. At the age of eight he joined the Choir of Westminster Abbey in London under the direction of Simon Preston. Robert graduated from Oundle School and Cambridge University. He sang in the choirs of Gonville and Caius and St. John’s Colleges in Cambridge and was appointed Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Evansville, Indiana, in 1996 where he oversees an extensive program of music education, concerts, and special events, in addition to leading worship from the church’s fine collection of keyboard instruments and organs. The Choir School of First Presbyterian Church continues to flourish.

Robert has served as a conductor and organist for RSCM America Summer Choral Residencies and is the current manager of the Midwest Residency located in Evansville. His compositions for both organ and choir have been performed and broadcast in both the US and Europe, and at RSCM America events. Robert is honored to have been invited to be the conductor of the RSCM America National Choir in 2024-2025.

Robert won first place at the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2012 and has accompanied a wide range of silent films including Nosferatu, The Phantom of the Opera, The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Faust, Metropolis, and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger, in addition to numerous comedy shorts.

As a member of the Evansville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, he has served as Dean and has chaired special projects including the 2009 Pipe Organ Encounter Advanced, the 2015 William Bolcom Commission of Fantasia for Organ and Brass Quintet premiered in Evansville with Dr. Douglas Reed and the American Brass Quintet, and the 2018 restoration (in memory of Helen Skuggedal Reed) by Taylor and Boody Organbuilders of the historic Edmund Giesecke organ made in Evansville in 1889.

Robert is married to Emma Nicholls, PhD, a pediatric Clinical Psychologist at Easterseals. They are proud parents of Elena (20) and William (18).