Concert Program

Founder and Executive Director of the Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival in Lynchburg, Virginia, his hometown. Dudley recognizes there are many great unheard works lying outside the typical classical canon, and advocates for programming newer music and under-represented composers.

What originally started as a piano quartet with a few friends in 2017 eventually turned into a ten-day chamber music festival in August 2021. Dudley formed a group of thirteen musicians from Lynchburg, New York, and other parts of the world to perform three chamber music concerts in the first season of SHCMF, in some of the first live concerts to play in Lynchburg since the start of the pandemic. Seven Hills' debut season featured a performance at The Academy of Arts, at Westminster Presbyterian and First Presbyterian churches, and a violin/viola masterclass for young musicians in Lynchburg.

Dudley has a breadth of experience in classical music – firstly as a violist performing regularly around the country in orchestral, chamber, and contemporary music settings. He has appeared on stage with Mariah Carey at the MTV VMA's in 2025, with "Rent in Concert" touring 17 cities across the US and Canada, and regularly with American Ballet Theatre in Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall. Dudley maintains a private studio of violists and violinists that he teaches throughout the year. He has also written grants and received an NEA award for Seven Hills Chamber Music in 2026.

Makes music to unlock wonder. Fascinated with contemporary expressions of our shared human experience, the NYC-based pianist merges composition, curation, and performance in collaborations across the arts. Described as "brilliant" and an "immense talent" (New York Magazine and Connect Savannah), Nicole is "redefining the very notion of classical music" (Atención San Miguel). Her credits range from the Guggenheim Museum (NYC), Rai Italia, and the Banff Centre (Canada) to Lincoln Center, Bellas Artes (Mexico), HBO, and underground spaces in Brooklyn factories and warehouses.

An awardee of over 50 international grants and honors, including the New York Foundation of the Arts (2024, 2022), IPaT Research & Engagement Grant (2024), New York State Council on the Arts (2026, 2024), and Pure.Art Circle Italy (2024), Nicole has curated more than 100 productions featuring 200+ compositions and commissions over the last decade. Described as a "piano virtuoso" (The Daily Gazette, Saratoga Springs), Nicole focuses on the kinetic energy exchange in performances — with both her collaborators and her audience. Such collaborations range from Infinitesimal — a genre-shattering chamber opera that interweaves memoir with cutting edge research on near-death experiences — to .soundfullness — an electroacoustic piano installation that transforms outdoor spaces into places of deep listening — to Duo Extempore — a piano-bass duo whose storytelling projects span two films, concerts with sonified plant biorhythms, and historic site performances on period instruments.

A frequent guest presenter of workshops, master classes, and residencies, Nicole has delivered sessions for the Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg (Germany); Conservatoire de Pantin (Paris); Lunigiana International Music Festival (Italy); Columbia University; and for universities across the US. In 2025, Nicole partnered with Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is working with GTRI researchers to find new intersections in STEM + Arts education. Nicole was a 2025 Artist in Residence with the New York City Department of Education, and in 2022, she became Artistic Director of Seven Hills Chamber Music in Virginia. Nicole is a Yamaha Artist, a voting member of The Recording Academy (GRAMMYS), and her music is registered with ASCAP.