Orchestra : Nikolas Caoile, Conductor

At CWU since 2006
Degrees:
University of Michigan
DMA Orchestral Conducting, 2006
University of Washington
MM Orchestral Conducting, 2003
Willamete University
BM Composition - 2000

Dr. Nikolas Caoile

Director of Orchestras

Dr. Nikolas Caoile is Director of Orchestras at Central Washington University. There, he leads the Symphony, Chamber, and Opera Orchestras.

Caoile has appeared with the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, Salem Chamber Orchestra, Capital Area Youth Symphony, Willamette Falls Symphony Orchestra, and Portland State University Orchestra. Caoile has conducted internationally at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and at the Institute Musical de Provence Aubagne in France. Caoile has also participated in the 2003 Vahktang Jordania Competition in Kharkov, Ukraine where he was one of 24 competitors invited to conduct the Kharkov Philharmonic. Caoile also participated in the 9th Cadaques Conducting Competition in Barcelona, Spain. His principal teachers include: Kenneth Kiesler, Gustav Meier, Peter Erös, Larry Rachleff and Daniel Lewis.

Caoile also thrives in the opera repertoire. He has served on the music staff of the Aspen Opera Theater Center as a Coach Accompanist Fellow preparing many operas such as: Rigoletto, The Cunning Little Vixen, Die Entführung auf dem Serail, The Turn of the Screw, and Giasone. He has served as an accompanist with the Seattle Opera assisting in productions of Eugene Onegin and Norma. He was a coach pianist and chorus master for the Bel Canto Vocal Institute in Portland, Oregon, as well as the Music Director of the Willamette Opera Theater.

Caoile has also led operas from the harpsichord in performances of L'incoronazione di Poppea, Giasone, Calisto, and Dido and Aeneas. Caoile has also conducted performances of Così fan Tutte, Il Matrimonio Segretto, Gianni Schicchi, The Bartered Bride, and Dido and Aeneas. In 2004, he assisted Martin Katz in the University of Michigan production of Hänsel and Gretel . In 2006, Caoile premiered Nancy van de Vate’s “Where the Cross is Made” for the Annual His teachers include Martin Katz, Phil Kelsey, David McDade, and Kenneth Merrill.

Caoile is an active adjudicator, guest clinician, and master class teacher. He has adjudicated throughout the Northwest, including Alaska. He is the Director of the Laughing Horse Youth Orchestra Festival. Caoile remains active as a collaborative pianist.