Profile
Nick Hallett is musician, artist, and organizer. The long arc of their practice is rooted in reimagining the voice as object, instrument, and medium outside of traditional singing contexts, through play with non-language, technology, and intermedia. This has led to a varied career in the sonic and performing arts, including projects at The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Performa, The Kitchen, Roulette, and ISSUE Project Room, among many others. In 2009, Hallett was the first artist-in-residence at the New Museum's theater space and his cross-platform opera collaboration with Shana Moulton, Whispering Pines 10, was launched as a digital exhibition there, with funding from a Creative Capital grant.
In the dance world, Hallett served as the music director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company from 2014 through 2022, during which time he composed the scores for seven evening-length works and toured with the company as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. Along with the company, he accepted a 2022 NY Dance and Performance "Bessie" award for his efforts on Deep Blue Sea, which premiered at the Park Avenue Armory's drill hall, with a visual environment created by renowned architect, Liz Diller (DS+R). Hallett received his first Bessie in 2017 for Scenes From a Life and other works by John Bernd, a collaboration with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez, that engaged with the archive of John Bernd (1953-1988), an artist who passed from AIDS-related illness. Hallett is the founding curator of live art at the New York City AIDS Memorial. Projects there include the 2023 reconstruction of a "lost" early work by Arthur Russell, City Park (1973).
Known as an “invaluable” (The New Yorker) impresario, Hallett is the co-director of Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant-Garde, a series that has received wide acclaim for its bold presentations of contemporary classical music, and the music director of a decade-long revival of the Joshua Light Show, the legendary psychedelic lighting artists led by Joshua White that took residence at the Fillmore East between 1967 and 1970. Under Hallett's curatorship, between 2007 and 2017, the project performed around the world with artists such as MGMT, Terry Riley, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Television. Hallett's original music for the lightshow played at the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, CTM Festival (Berlin), and Mutek Mexico City.
As a vocalist, Hallett is the director of the Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble, which performs music by NEA Jazz Master, Anthony Braxton. He has given guest lectures and workshops at Oberlin College/Conservatory, Bard College, Wesleyan University, Mills College, and NYU (Performance Studies, Music Composition), among others.
Degrees Held
MA, Wesleyan University (Music Composition)
BA/BM Oberlin College and Conservatory (Linguistics, Voice Performance)
Professional Affiliation
Part time faculty at The New School and School of Visual Arts. Courses taught at Wesleyan University. Guest lectures at Bard College, Mills College, Oberlin College, New York University (Performance Studies, Composition), Freie Universität Berlin, and Kunstakademie Münster, among others. Artist advisory boards of The Kitchen and the New York City AIDS Memorial.
Recent Publications
Transidiomatic Orality: Anthony Braxton's Journey through the Voice, Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik (2025)
Performances and Appearances
Museum of Modern Art, Park Avenue Armory, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Museum, The Kitchen, PERFORMA, Hayden Planetarium, Roulette, ISSUE Project Room, Danspace, and Poetry Project, among many other institutional and commercial spaces in New York and the USA, including the Kennedy Center, Detroit Opera, American Dance Festival, ICA Boston, Warhol Museum, and SFMOMA. Abroad, Hallett’s work has been presented at Palais de Tokyo, Nuits Blanches, Transmediale (CTM) Festival, Mutek Mexico, Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón, and Singapore Festival of Arts, among many others.
Research Interests
Voice Studies, Sound Art, Visual Music, Archival Reconstruction
Awards And Honors
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2026 The New School Civic Liberal Arts (CLA) curriculum grant
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2022 NY Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award, with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company
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2018 Mount Tremper Arts residency
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2017 NY Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award, with Ishmael Houston-Jones and Miguel Gutierrez
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2015 Fisher Center/Bard College Residency '
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2015 Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant
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2015 El Jardin Sahel residency
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2013 Kunsthuis SYB residency, with Shana Moulton
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2013 Creative Capital Grantee, with Shana Moulton
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2013 Casement Fund Triangle Grant
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2010 Harvestworks: Van Lier Residency
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2009 Performa commission
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2009 New Museum of Contemporary Art Re:New Re:Play Artist Residency