Violinist Nicholas Hammel is currently pursuing his Master of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at the Yale School of Music under Ani Kavafian. He has also earned degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and the New England Conservatory, studying with Sandy Yamamoto and Don Weilerstein. He has soloed with orchestras such as the Richardson Symphony, Austin Civic Orchestra, and the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra. He was also a semi-finalist in the 2022 Young Texas Artists Music Competition, the 2022 Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition, and first prize winner in the 2022 Ann & Charles Eismann Young Artists Competition. In addition to past competitions, Nicholas is also competing in the 2024 Joachim International Violin Competition in Hanover, Germany.
Nicholas is also an active chamber music performer, and has performed with artists such as Sandy Yamamoto, Bion Tsang, Andrew Brownell, and Anton Nel. He also is the violinist of Trio Sponte, an up-and-coming piano trio founded at the New England Conservatory in 2023. Together, they won the grand prize at the 2024 Coltman Chamber Music Competition. His former group, Trio En, won Silver Medal in the Senior Strings Division of the 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They also placed first in the 2020 MTNA Chamber Music Competition.