Nicola studied music as a modern flautist at Cardiff University and then at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she began baroque flute lessons and won the Performance Practice Prize. This led to her appointment as sub-principal flute and recorder of the Welsh Baroque Orchestra and her keen involvement with period performance. Nicola has studied the baroque flute and recorder with Katy Bircher, Rebecca Prosser, and Rachel Brown, and graduated from Cardiff University with a PhD in historical performance, specifically concerning Handel’s solo sonatas for flute and recorder.

Nicola plays professionally with several period instrument orchestras around the UK including the Musical and Amicable Society, Réjouissance, The Bristol Ensemble, Brecon Baroque, and the Gabrieli Consort & Players.

Nicola is an enthusiastic teacher, having run her own private practice for 20 years. She enjoys teaching children and adults, and regularly puts on concerts for her pupils to share their music making with each other and their families. Nicola also teaches woodwind in schools for CF Music, and baroque flute at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.