NICHOLAS EDWARDS
____________________________________________________________
Nicholas Edwards is a leading acoustics designer for critically acclaimed venues such as the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, England and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. Nick is currently working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Nick chose a specialty in room acoustics based on his education as a musician and as an architect. His music education began in the 1960’s when he was a chorister in Coventry Cathedral Choir. He sang in the first performances of Britten’s War Requiem both in Coventry Cathedral and in Ottobeuren, Germany, conducted by Britten himself. After leaving the boys choir he performed in English folk bands and popular music bands, and had a hit song in the alternative charts. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Nottingham University in 1979.
That year, Nick was invited to join a small acoustics and theatre consulting firm in New York City, and relocated to the United States. Working closely with Russell Johnson, Nick helped to build Artec Consultants from a four-person firm into an international consulting group. He introduced a strongly scientific approach to acoustics which was supportive of Mr. Johnson’s empirical approaches. His work completely revised the initial acoustical design of the Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas. The full story is set out in the writing of the hall’s history -- Building a Dream, by musicologist Laurie Shulman where he is credited as the hall’s principal acoustic designer.
Nick’s primary talent is in the acoustic design of auditoria and in developing performance spaces that provide a rich experience for both patron and artist. Nick continues to be active in the field of research in auditorium acoustics, and is the developer of the “IMAGES” computer program, which made possible the tracking of sound paths in three dimensional rooms for the analysis of the room acoustics of concert halls. His current work on IMAGES2 has expanded the capability of the program to track sound from sources to entire audience areas and includes both geometric reflection and edge-diffracted and surface-scattered sound. This allows the scientific study of room acoustics in theatres for unamplified drama, in opera houses and in concert halls.
Nick’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a post graduate Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Nottingham University.
Nick is a principal in our Coventry office.
