Alkis Nicolaides is a guitarist, improviser, composer and educator from Nicosia, Cyprus. His original work takes many forms, and it is influenced by a wide array of musical traditions. Performances of original explosive jazz-influenced metal music – battle jazz – ASMR cooking performance art, contemporary western art chamber music, music for home appliances, and improvised duets with his pseudo-AI computer instrument namedChallenger. His interest in exploring many styles and performance methods is rooted to Edgar Varese’s definition of music:“What is music but organized noise?” and on David Rosenboom’s words:“What is music? I hope we never see a day when we believe we know the answer. For that day would close down music as a viable art form.”
During the last few years, Nicolaides has been performing and recording in the greater L.A. area. He has performed in venues such as Blue Whale, Troubadour, The World Stage, The Mint, Coaxial Arts Foundation, and Art Share with the legendary Bennie Maupin, prolific woodwind extraordinaire Vinny Golia, experimental black-doom metal band Blood Oath, and experimental electroacoustic trio Petrichor.
His latest work explores harmonic environments outside the equal temperament tuning system with the use of natural harmonics and non-traditional guitar tunings. Currently he is working on further developing his interactive instrument Chalenger that is inspired by the idea of how to surpass perceived human limitations.
Nicolaides graduated with honors, (Summa Cum Laude), from Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Ayn Inserto, Greg Hopkins, Bob Pilkington, Scott Free, Ed Tomassi, and George Garzone. After receiving his B.Mus. in Jazz Composition (2014), he continued his studies at California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in Jazz Guitar (2016) under the mentorship of Larry Koonse and Steve Lehman, and his DMA in Performer/Composer (2021) under the mentorship of David Rosenboom, Vinny Golia, and Steve Lehman.